CHE STORY
CABALGIA quium pariat
VOL
UNTARIANS
UNIVERZALISTS
BX
9833
A42
*
A 556551
* THE AMERICAN *
CHURCH HISTORY SERIES
DUPL
BUSOSAREE BANYES SALAAM
!
BESUT TAKEN POE SAD

•
|
LIBRARY
ARTES
CIA
DONORLIGA BAN
1837
VERITAS
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
WATAS
FLUNTATIS UNGA
TUEROR
SCIENTIA
QUARIS PENINSULAM'AKOHAM
CIRCUMSPICE
OF THE
najeba
VAROVAN
EVOTIO
my; }
***Z Grurie
Kirketed?? just na cnlaisia kilog) to
c. Đó là mua
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF THE
UNITARIAN MOVEMENT SINCE THE REFORMATION.
BY
JOSEPH HENRY ALLEN, D.D.,
LATE LECTURER ON ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN Harvard UNIVERSITY; HONORARY
MEMBER OF THE SUPREME CONSISTORY OF TRANSYLVANIA.
xi
QU9-15-94
NES PANEELGESTRADA CAPAN
Unitarianism was the child of Humanism and of the Renais-
sance. It does not belong to ancient history at least as a
decided movement in religious thought. Properly understood,
it arose from a protest against an unethical and unsocial theol-
ogy, rather than against orthodoxy. Like all strong religious
reactions, it became involved in other interests, theological and
practical. Unitarianism is now, many hold, a decaying sect which
has done its work, and whose forces are being absorbed by the
Churches reckoned orthodox. Consistent Unitarianism now
becomes undefined free thought, and disintegrates. The old
dogmatism which gave rise to it is passing away. The Unita-
rian Movement Since the Reformation, by J. H. Allen, can be
depended upon as a thorough piece of work. Much of the
book embraces the section of New England Unitarianism that
has come under Dr. Allen's personal observation. The volume
belongs to the series of American Church History, and is pub-
lished by the Christian Literature Company of this city..
#.
1
"
}
The American
Church History Series
>
CONSISTING OF A SERIES OF
DENOMINATIONAL HISTORIES PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CHURCH HISTORY
General Editors
BISHOP JOHN F. HURST, D. D., LL. D.
REV. E. J. WOLF, D. D.
HENRY C. VEDDER, M. A.
REV. SAMUEL M. JACKSON, D. D., LL. D.
REV. PHILIP SCHAFF, D. D., LL. D.
RT. REV. H. C. POTTER, D. D., LL. D.
REV. Gio. P. FISHER, D. D., LL. D.
VOLUME X
$
American Church History
A HISTORY
OF
THE UNITARIANS
1
AND
THE UNIVERSALISTS
IN THE UNITED STATES
BY
JOSEPH HENRY ALLEN, D. D.
RICHARD EDDY, D. D.
AND
New York
The Christian Literature Co.
MDCCCXCIV
1
BX
9833
·A·1·2
*
1
}=1
Copyright, 1894,
BY THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE COmpany.
&
HRUL
-124
L
12-47
;
**
7
PREFACE.
THE task attempted here is, first, to give, within the
limits assigned, a history of the religious movement
known as "Unitarian" sufficiently broad and complete
for the general reader; and second, to furnish a list of
authorities adequate for the uses of the special student.
The latter object, it is hoped, has been effected by ample
references in the margin. A formal bibliography, partic-
ularly of individual lives, which are very numerous, might
be extended to any length, and might hardly justify the
space it would require. Besides, the value of this sketch,
such as it is, depends-in the latter part especially-on its
being a record of personal recollections, judgments, or
impressions, left by near sixty years during which I have
been a student or observer, and more than fifty while I
have been, in a way, a laborer, in this field. In what is
said of the incidents and actors since the movement of
thought among us commonly dated between 1835 and
1840, every name is one I recall, gratefully, as that of a
teacher, associate, or friend. Most of these are passed
away. Of the living, only Furness and Martineau have
been included; and these, in their advanced and venerated
old age, already belong to history.
V
vi
PREFACE.
The record of the last half-century is, accordingly, that
of a witness, not an annalist. It does not give so full a
register of events as I wished; but it aims to include all
the data and the personalities which are essential to the
understanding of this period in the denominational life.
It is supplemented, from my own point of view, by a
more extended study, written out during the time of my
service in the Harvard Divinity School, and published
under the title "Our Liberal Movement in Theology
(Boston, Roberts Brothers). In this connection special
attention should be called to Dr. G. E. Ellis's "Half-Cent-
ury of the Unitarian Controversy" (Boston, 1857), and
to the biographies of Channing, Parker, and Gannett, by
W. H. Channing, John Weiss, O. B. Frothingham, and
W. C. Gannett. For the remoter period I would espe-
cially refer to Professor Bonet-Maury's "Early Sources"
(London, 1884), and to articles in the "Theological Re-
view" and the "Encyclopædia Britannica," by Rev.
Alexander Gordon.
J. H. ALLEN.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.,
January, 1894.
})
Zd
CHAP. I.—ITAlian ReformeRS.-Waldenses; Anabaptists.-Reform
in Italy. The Brothers Valdes.-Valdes in Naples.-Circle of the
Reformers.-"The Benefit of Christ."-Doctrine of Good Works.-
Ochino. Queen Mary's Prisons.-Ochino's Later Life.-Doctrine
Concerning Christ.
CHAP. II. SERVETUS.-The Reformers on Servetus.-Servetus and
Melanchthon.-Conferences at Augsburg.-Melanchthon's "Top-
ics."" De Trinitatis Erroribus."-Servetus in France.—The
Pagnini Bible." Christianismi Restitutio."-Arrest and Trial of
Servetus. His Martyrdom.-Its Motive.-The Doctrine of Serve-
tus.-Estimate of Servetus.
CHAP. III.—SOCINUS.-Lælius Socinus.-Faustus Socinus.-The
Task of Socinus.-The Situation in Switzerland.-The Name
“Unitarian.”—Socinus in Poland.-The Last Days of Socinus.-
The Writings of Socinus.-The Doctrine of Socinus
CHAP. IV. THE POLISH BRETHREN.-The Reformation in Poland.
-Antitrinitarian Confession in Poland.-The House of Jagello.
-Polish Diet of 1573.-Henry of Valois.-Socinus in Poland.-
The Socinians.—The Jesuit Policy.—Cossack Revolt.—Death or
Exile (1658-60).-Last of the Polish Brethren.-The Racovian
Catechism"
"C
...
J
CONTENTS.
S
THE UNITARIANS.
•
•
vii
I
•
•
·
U
• 1 4
1
▸
I
97
CHAP. V.—TRANSYLVANIA.—Magyars, Saxons, Wallachs.—The Szek-
lers.-Reformation in Transylvania.-John Sigismund.-Francis
David. -Edict of Religious Freedom, 1658.-Death of John Sigis-
mund, 1571.-David and Blandrata.-Political Changes.-Austrian
Barbarities.-Bethlen Gabor; Sabbatarian Controversy.-Michael
St. Abraham.-Restoration of 1791.-The Present Situation. . . . . .
CHAP. VI.—English PIONEERS.-Persecution in England.-William
Chillingworth.-Attack on Independency.-Cromwell's "Arti-
cles."-Baxter's
-Baxter's "Essentials."-John Biddle.-Thomas Firmin.
William Penn.-Toleration Act.-Bull, Bury, Wallis.-William
Sherlock; Robert South.-Locke's "Reasonableness.". -Thomas
Emlyn. Last Acts of Intolerance
·
骨
​•
J
•
Katego
PAGE
•
I
24
49
73
121
0
viii
CONTENTS OF THE UNITARIANS.
1
CHAP. VII.-UNITARIAN DISSENT IN ENGLAND.-Presbyterian, In-
dependent, Baptist.-Theophilus Lindsey.-Lindsey in London.-
The Earlier Unitarian Dissent.-Joseph Priestley.-Priestley's
Materialism.-Priestley in America.-Thomas Belsham.-Lant
Carpenter. Later English Unitarians.-James Martineau.-The
Present Situation.
CHAP. VIII. ANTECEDENTS IN NEW ENGLAND.-Early Covenants.
Confession of 1680.-Unitarians of the Eighteenth Century.—
Whitefield and Chauncy.-The Mayhews.-Jonathan Mayhew.-
Liberals in Salem.-William Bentley.-King's Chapel, Boston.
-Henry Ware at Harvard College.-John Sherman.-Abiel Abbot.
-The "Monthly Anthology."-John Lowell.-W. E. Channing.. 170
CHAP. IX. -PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY AND EXPANSION.Chan-
ning's Baltimore Sermon.-Channing
Channing Unitarianism.-Lyman
Beecher in Boston.-Representative Names.-Emerson's Resigna-
tion.-Emerson's Divinity School Address.-Norton and Ripley.
-Theodore Parker. The Boston Association.-The Berry Street
Conference.-Anniversary Week.-The Autumnal Convention.-
Lack of Sectarian Temper
CHAP. X.-THE NEW UNITARIANISM.-The Civil War: King, Eliot,
Bellows. The National Conference.-James Freeman Clarke.-
Frederic Henry Hedge.-Widened Range of Action.-The Minis-
ters' Institute.- Transcendental Wild Oats."The Western Is-
sue. Mission College in Japan.-Recent Necrology.-The Name
"Unitarian."-England and the Continent.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE: Letter from Dr. Martineau
Magda
—
April May
· ·
.
• •
•
•
·
•
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
督
​•
J
T
• ·
St
K
• ·
A
•
"
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
CHAP. I.—FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE REFORMATION.—The
Sibylline Oracles."-Clement of Alexandria.-Origen.—Metho-
dius.—Marcellus.-Gregory Nyssen.-Diodorus.-Theodore of
Mopsuestia.-Theodoret.-Bar Sudaili.-Maximus the Confessor.
-John Scotus Erigena.-Almaric and Albert.-Brethren of the
Common Lot.-John of Goch.-Peter d'Aranda
CHAP. II.-FROM LUTHER TO THE PRESENT TIME.-Martin Luther.
-The Anabaptists.-Protestant England.-William Postell.-Dr.
John Davenant.-Gerard Winstanley.-Jeremy White.-Jane Lead.
-The Viscountess of Conway.-Dr. Thomas Burnet.-Petersen
-Ditelmair.-German Believers.-German Writings.-Taught in
Holland.-Petitpierre- Cuppe.-France-Scotland.—The Cheva-
PAGE
• +
146
195
221
247
253
255
By Sp
i
+
lier Ramsay.-Warburton's Divine Legation." Harleian Miscel-
lany."-Rev. William Law.-Sir George Stonehouse.-Henderson
-Winchester.-The "Monthly Review."-The "Critical Review."
-Dr. Crombie.-Rev. David Thom.-Rev. John Foster.-Towns-
hend—McDonald.—English Congregationalists.-Olshausen
CHAP. III.-IN AMERICA PRIOR TO OR INDEPENDENT OF JOHN
MURRAY.-Gorton.-Vane.- Dr. De Benneville.- Germantown
Settlers.-Episcopalians.-Congregationalists.-Presbyterians 372
CHAP. IV.-JOHN MURRAY.-Murray's Theology.-Influence on Cal-
vinism.-Influence on Universalists.-Trouble in Gloucester.-Ox-
ford Association.—Mr. Murray in Boston.—An Effective Pioneer. 388
CHAP. V.-ELHANAN WINCHESTER AND CALEB RICH.-Philadel-
phia Baptists. Rev. David Evans.-Dr. Benjamin Rush.-Church
Government.-Unitarian Universalism.-Dr. Joseph Priestley.—
Mr. Winchester's Theology.-Rev. Caleb Rich…..
CHAP. VI.-HOSEA BALLOU AND PROGRESS.-Unitarian Universal-
ism." The Winchester Profession."-" Plan of Association.".
"Treatise on Atonement."-In the States.-State Organizations.. 427
CHAP. VII.-AN UNFORTUNATE DIVISION.-Discussion on Future
Punishment.-Unitarian Attack.-Mr. Ballou's Answer.-Change
of Editors.-The Restorationists.-Extreme Views.-Present Atti-
tude
CHAP. VIII.-POLITY-MISSIONS-HISTORICAL SOCIETY.-Lack of
Uniformity.Inadequate Measures.-A Definite Polity.-Mission
444
sion
CONTENTS.
• I
•
N
•
to Japan
CHAP. IX.-LITERATURE-HYMNOLOGY.-Publishing House.-Con-
vention Hymn-book.-Hosea Ballou's Convention Hymn.-Hymn-
R
books.-Hymn-Writers
CHAP. X.-EDUCATION-YOUNG PEOPLE.-Sunday-schools.-Nichols
Academy.-Academies.-Theological School.-Colleges.-Conclu-
*
•
་
•
4
•
• U
*
ix
· •
PAGE
306
408
461
471
482
THE UNITARIANS.
CHAPTER I.
+
ITALIAN REFORMERS.
UNITARIANISM as now held is a late growth out of the
general movement of thought that brought about the
Protestant Reformation and has been working out ever
since. It is wholly independent of the controversies or
the heresies which appeared during the long process that
developed the creed of Catholic Christendom.
These may
be regarded as having come to an end with the recantation
of the Adoptian theory by Felix of Urgel in Catalonia in
799. The Reformers of the sixteenth century came slowly
and reluctantly into conflict with the dogmatic system
which for more than a thousand years had been accepted
by the general consent of Christians. We have no dif-
ference with Rome on a single point of doctrine," said
Melanchthon at Augsburg, in 1530.1 Though they had
assailed the logical method of the Scholastics and avoided
their doctrinal terms and distinctions as long as they could,
yet, when they came to the formal defense of their own
theology, they adopted and eagerly maintained (against
Servetus, for example) the very forms and phrases invented
1 Dogma nullum habemus diversum ab ccclesiá romand.--"Opera," ed.
Bretschneider, vol. ii., p. 170.
I
:
:
2
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. 1.
by the medieval schools and thence grafted upon the
Catholic creed,
But there had been all along an undercurrent of hostility
against the doctrine as well as the discipline of Rome, and
the form it took was sometimes very radical. One splen-
did and heroic example is that of the Waldenses, "Protest-
ants of the Alps," known in history as a distinct religious
body for something more than seven hundred years, suffer-
ing through most of these years under a persecution whose
unrelenting ferocity cannot be paralleled elsewhere in relig-
ious history, without the slightest approach to submission.
or compromise. Their own tradition connects their seces-
sion from Rome with the zeal of Claudius (Claude), the
reforming bishop of Turin, a Spaniard by birth, a pupil of
the heretic Felix, placed in the see of Piedmont by Louis
the Pious, about 820, to contend there against supersti-
tious practices, who showed such iconoclastic vigor as to
call down the censures of the church, and to win the ill
name of "Arian." (Baronius, Anno 825, lviii.)
If this be so, Claudius may be taken as the connecting
link between ancient and modern forms of Unitarian belief.
And it is not impossible that this earliest protest against
the autocracy of the Empire Church may have left a line
of living descent sheltered among the southern valleys of the
Alps, and have become part of the celebrated "Leonine"
tradition that runs back to the days of Constantine, assert-
ing a gospel according to Paul" that maintained itself
there independent of the hierarchy, and emerged in the
general stir of thought promoted by the Crusades, when
first we hear of the Albigenses and Waldenses.¹
CC
The great and premature revolt of free thought in the
twelfth century-which led to the formal adoption of the
1 See my Christian History in its Three Great Periods," vol. ii., pp.
165–167.
Į
ANABAPTISTS.
3
¹
policy of persecution in the Third Lateran Council of 1179,
and later to the twenty years' religious war in Languedoc
-appears, when we look into it, to have turned on points
that came to have a sinister prominence in the story of the
Protestant Reformation, and are, in fact, nearly connected
with our present topic. The heresies of that day are stig-
matized both as "Arian" and as "Manichæan "—which
latter reproach they share with Calvinism. But, in partic-
ular, they are agreed in rejecting the church dogma of
baptismal regeneration. Their religious life takes the form
sometimes of a ritual severely simple, sometimes of a moral-
ity at once tender and austere, sometimes of an exaltation
running to Antinomian excess, sometimes of a pious mys-
ticism that merges all positive dogma in living experiences
of the soul.
It is perhaps with a little surprise that we find in these
medieval heresies a family likeness connecting them with
certain radical sects that sprang up side by side with the
Lutheran reform, especially the "Anabaptists "that is,
re-baptizers, requiring the rite of all new converts. These
have left an ill name by reason of the scandals and feroci-
ties which some of them ran into. But, again, we meet
them from time to time living peaceably and piously, as in
Poland, in recognized religious communities; or as extend-
ing widely in some Lutheran countries, especially in north-
ern Germany. Their church life, so far as we discern it,
shows nothing of disorder, but only a greater independence
of tradition and dogma than that of other Protestant sects.
The germs of modern Unitarianism as a popular belief
we seem to find first in these poor communities of Baptists,
scattered and scorned. It was, as we shall see, part of the
..
1 "In this year [1176] was condemned the Arian heresy, which had infected
almost the entire province of Toulouse."-Baronius. (See a debate on the
Trinity in Mansi, vol. xxii., p. 79.)
4
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. I.
1
attempt of the younger Socinus to strengthen them by a
closer-knit organization and a more sharply defined belief.
When some of them emigrated out of Holland into Eng-
land in the reign of Henry VIII., and were burned alive
for their “Arian" heresy in 1535, we come in this pitiful
tragedy upon the first historic traces of what grew long
after into the body of Unitarian Dissent. Further, when
the persecution was renewed against them ten years later,
under the boy-king Edward, we find, as making part of
the same account, in the burning of that poor pious en-
thusiast, Joan of Kent, what appears to have been a crude
form of the old Apollinarian heresy-denial that the human
body of the Lord Jesus was taken from the substance of
his mother.
mat
Again, the growth of the Unitarian opinion was favored
by a general freedom of speculation which made the life
of the "Humanist" revival. Erasmus, with elaborate sar-
casm, had brought into contempt the very method and
nomenclature of the Scholastic theology. Naturally, he
is spoken of as "that cursed antitrinitarian" by the heresy-
hunters of his day. Luther and Calvin, in their recoil from
Catholic dogma, long avoided the term "trinity," and re-
fused to employ the Athanasian Creed; though-the one
from his ardent worship of the person of Jesus, and the
.other from the demand of an infinite sacrifice in the atone-
ment-they abhorred whatever implied any limit to the
absolute deity of Christ.2 "Surely," writes Melanchthon,
"there is no reason that we should spend much pains in
these high matters-God, unity, trinity, the mystery of
creation, or the mode of incarnation. What, pray, have
1 Introduction to Wallace's "Antitrinitarian Biography."
""
2 See the testimonies in Chastel, Histoire du Christianisme," vol. iv.,
pp. 380, 381. The Genevan pastors in 1537 were (he says) charged by Caroli
with Arianism and Sabellianism. Compare Calvin, "Opera," vol. ix., p. 693.
5
the Scholastic theologues gained in all these centuries by
their handling of such themes? I might easily overturn
all the arguments they allege: how many of these, indeed,
seem to make rather for heresy than for the Catholic doc-
trine! Did Paul philosophize on the mystery of the trinity,
or the mode of incarnation, or active or passive creation?" 1
It was natural that he too should be charged (as we are
told he was) with Arianism, a heresy he was afterward so
diligent to refute. Zwingli at Marburg, in 1529, had first
of all (says D'Aubigné) to deny humanitarian ("Jewish ")
views of the nature of Christ. And ten years later, Me-
lanchthon warns the Venetian Senate of the wide spread
of "Servetianism" in northern Italy, employing against it
the same metaphysical arguments and distinctions he had
once disclaimed.
REFORM IN ITALY.
But here we touch upon another, if not quite independ-
ent, train of antecedents. The starting-point is not, as
before, in the protest of the German Reformers, and not in
the bosom of a secluded, obscure, and fanatical sect. It
is at the very heart of the Catholic Church itself, in the
interior circles of its purest piety and its most refined intel-
ligence. The movement we are concerned with embraces
minds that never once thought of secession from the
Church of Rome; they might even hope that Rome would
yet join hands with Germany to bring about a genuine re-
form of Christendom. They announce no formal scheme
of doctrine and make no open attack on the existing church
system; their hostility is shown simply by their silence as to
the ritual, the discipline, or the dogma which that system
makes all-important in the religious life. The movement
they represent begins with a very pure and ardent form of
practical piety, though it runs out presently to a phase of
opinion more frankly radical and rationalistic than we find
1 Loci Theologici," pp. 8, 9 (ed. of 1521).
6
THE UNITARIANS.
[СНАР. І.
elsewhere, which marks the later stage of the Reformation
in Italy. This line of development leads directly to our
proper subject; and we may here most conveniently follow
it through a series of representative names.
It first appears
upon the stage of history in the following very dramatic
way.1
When the emperor Charles V. came into Italy out of
Spain in 1529 to attend the splendid ceremonial of his
coronation at Bologna2 he brought with him as members
of his household two twin brothers, Alphonso and John
Valdes, sons of a noble Spanish house, both accomplished
scholars and men of ardent piety. The elder was the em-
peror's private secretary, the one employed by him when
special scholarly accomplishment was called for; he was a
friend and correspondent of Erasmus, whom he had de-
fended in controversy with ecclesiastical assailants, and who
addresses him in several letters of warm affection: a man
more Erasmian than Erasmus," said his friends. He had
also, in two famous dialogues, been the champion of Charles
himself, when attacked for his antipapal policy. Charles
we must think of here not (as he is better known in his-
tory) as the sovereign soured, sallow, and prematurely old,
who at fifty-five laid by the crown, worn out with care,
defeat, and disappointment; not as the baffled politician,
"C
L
1 The most accessible authorities for this very interesting chapter of the
Reformation are: Cantù, Gli Eretici d'Italia" (3 vols. Turin, 1867);
McCrie's “Reformation in Italy" (2 vols., London, 1827); Young's "Life
of Palcario," 2 vols., including several elaborate special biographies (London,
1860); G. Bonet-Maury, "Origines du Christianisme Unitaire chez les An-
glais" (Paris, 1881, 2d ed. 1883, with Preface by Dr. Martineau).
2 Of this pageant Servetus speaks in his passionate and scornful way in
1546: "With these very eyes I saw him [the Pope] carried in proces-
sion on the necks of princes," etc. SeeChristianismi Restitutio," p. 462
This
(Book II. of the Reign of Antichrist "), comparing pp. 118-121.
visit to Bologna, followed by the colloquies at Augsburg, had important con-
sequences in the history of the Reformation.
(C
(
7
weary and sick with warring against the stars in their
courses through a period of forty years; but as a man of
fresh vigor, five years younger than the young German
emperor is to-day (1893), with the splendid possibilities
before him of a reign that should reconstruct the Holy
Roman Empire and reunite the divided church-now
angry at the obstinate opposition of the Reformers, and
again accepting their alliance against Pope or Turk, but
always the object of jealous pride and devotion to his
Spanish countrymen. Such was the young hero whom
the brothers Valdes now attended.
THE BROTHERS VALDES.
Of the two dialogues, the earlier-between Mercury and
Charon at the River Styx-passes in review the procession
of shades that had gone to the world below in the late war
with France, expatiating freely on the sins of ambition,
wrath, and lust that went into that conflict, and no way
sparing the vices of the church. The other, in still bolder
strain, opens with a meeting of two friends, an officer near
the court and a churchman fresh from the war in Italy: it
gives, with a deep vein of passion, the most vivid picture
we have of the horrors in the sack of Rome (1527), casting
the whole guilt of the miseries of Italy upon the worldly
ambition of pope, cardinal, and priest. These daring com-
positions, in the favorite literary form of the day, had stirred
the papal envoy in Spain to bitter recrimination.
No man,
under protection less powerful than the emperor's own arm,
was safe from the sleepless enmity of the Spanish Inquisi-
tion. Charles could not desert the young friends who
volunteered this bold and timely defense; and the brothers,
both of whom had a hand in it, made (it is likely) part of
the brilliant escort that sailed with him from Barcelona in
September.1
S
1 The early history of the brothers Valdes was almost unknown till within
the past few years; even the later biographers are confused in dates and quite
8
[CHAP. I.
THE UNITARIANS.
The career of Alphonso Valdes, whether as scholar, diplo-
mat, or reformer (for he had been deeply impressed by the
conferences with Melanchthon at Augsburg), was cut short
by his death from plague at Vienna, in 1532. The same
year Charles, now at Ratisbon, learned the sudden death
of his viceroy at Naples, and appointed to that eminent ·
post Don Pedro of Toledo, brother of the terrible Alva, who
had something of the other's severity, but apparently not
his implacable bigotry. With him was joined, as secretary,
the younger Valdes, whose story we have next to follow.
He was now not far from thirty-three-an accomplished
man of letters, like his brother; a gentleman of infinite
courtesy and sweetness, who seems to have produced on
his friends an impression like that of Sir Philip Sidney at
Elizabeth's court; a Christian of deep and serious piety,
who had shared at Augsburg his brother's interest in the
religious side of the Reformed doctrine. As a friend
described him, on the news of his early death, he was
"without doubt, in act, word, and counsel, a complete
man; it was but a small portion of his spirit that sustained
his frail and slender frame, while with the larger portion,
and with pure intellect (as it were) apart from the body,
he stood always uplifted to the contemplation of truth and
divine things." 1
irreconcilable with one another. The historian must patch them together as
best he can. To Cantù it is not quite clear, even, whether there were one or
two. But a letter of Erasmus (Ep. xxii. 15) addressed to the younger speaks
of him as, by report, his brother's very double in mind and person: non duo
gemelli, sed idem prorsus homo. The embarkation at Barcelona is well em-
ployed by D'Aubigné to illustrate the Spaniards' enthusiastic loyalty to their
Prince.
!
1 Cantù, vol. i., p. 383. Erasmus, in a letter of March 20, 1529 (Ep.
xix. 30), addresses him as if he were already escaped from Spain, which is
"full of wasps' nests, yea, of furious hornets." Some accounts speak of him
as having gone direct to Naples; others assert that he was at Rome in 1531,
in official service with Clement VII.; others, again, that he did not reside at
Naples till 1534, and then not in attendance on Don Pedro.
VALDES IN NAPLES.
9
The line of division between the churches was still waver-
ing and doubtful. Valdes, while he never ceased to be at
heart a devout and faithful Catholic, soon set himself, with-
out the prejudice there would have been a few years later,
to propagate the purest doctrine of the Reformers as to
what we should at this day call the method of the religious
life. In this work he was aided by a fine scholarship, trans-
lating considerable portions of the Scriptures from the
Hebrew as well as the Greek. He was favored, besides,
by this happy circumstance: Naples was then under a rule
more liberal, enlightened, and just than most countries at
that time, as is shown by two striking evidences: there
existed under its immediate jurisdiction in Calabria a pros-
perous community of the Waldenses, that had emigrated
thither some two hundred years before, and subsisted there
till it was exterminated with circumstances of peculiar hor-
ror in 1560; and when, in 1547, an attempt was made to
force upon Naples the odious papal Inquisition, it was re-
sisted by a storm of popular fury which (it is said) cut off
to the last man a garrison of three thousand that tried to
quiet the disorder. The freedom of thinking, the learning.
and culture, and seclusion from the sharp religious conten-
tions of the day, made this the fair field where Valdes and
his friends began a movement that at one time seemed
likely to win Italy itself to the side of the Reformation, or
at least to secure standing-ground for the completest re-
ligious liberty. The story of this movement remains the
single record of his life till his death, in 1541, near the age
of forty-five.
PRE
Tank
S
The gospel that lay at the heart of this movement was
as absolutely free from dogma as it was then, possible for
such a thing to be. It is only in this sense that the claim
sometimes made by Unitarians of the next generation-
that Valdes was the real founder of their doctrine-can
10
2
1
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. I.
have any ground in fact. The propagation of it is said to
have begun in the palace of the lady Giulia Gonzaga—a
young widow of strange and romantic history, one of the
most beautiful, accomplished, and devout of the high-born
ladies of Italy, to whom Valdes addressed in the form of
dialogue (where her responses are given with much vivacity
and point) an elementary manual of piety, "The Christian
Alphabet," the best known of his shorter writings.¹ The
circle that had gathered first about this lovely witness of
the new faith met for a series of years statedly—a sort of
religious club-in the residence of Valdes himself, where
the long street Chiaja runs between the royal gardens and
the margin of the bay. Here was found a remarkable
group of those especially distinguished for rank, refinement,
learning, eloquence, or piety. To such a select class alone,
not directly to the people at large, the counsels or exposi-
tions of the young secretary were addressed. The propa-
ganda included no such thing as public teaching or preach-
ing: hence a certain aristocratic or academic quality, which
at once deprived it of popular effect, and gave it a radical
drift that quickly drew to it a perilous attention. Only
when a genuine Christian scholar like Peter Martyr Ver-
migli, afterward installed by Cranmer as professor of the-
ology at Oxford; or a great religious enthusiast like Ber-
nard Ochino, the most eloquent preacher of his day, whose
discourses were eagerly sought by several rival cities, and
who was once deputed for a series of Lenten sermons at
"}
1 An English translation of this dialogue is bound up with Wiffen's biog-
raphy of Valdes (much the best we have), and an interesting sketch of the
life of his fair respondent (London, 1861). Beginning with the three rules
of patience, obedience, and discipline, it traces twelve steps to the higher
life. Some passages show a curiously close parallel with Tauler. St. Paul's
hay, straw, stubble are explained as vain devotions, with opinions and
fancies of men." (Vol. xv. of the writings of Valdes.)
C
"
:
CIRCLE OF THE REFORMERS.
II
Naples; or a deeply devout and retiring student like Marc-
antonio Flaminio, one of the reputed authors of "The
Benefit of Christ"; or a churchman of singular breadth,
integrity, and courage like Pietro Carnesecchi, who met a
cruel death from the Inquisition in 1567-chanced to be
drawn within the circle, he was sure to catch something from
the refined and serious spirit that presided in it, and to
carry the same spirit into pulpit or desk or printed discourse
or priestly ministration. And, as the circle widened out, it
came to include a well-defined school of religious thought,
that marked out the lines of the short-lived Italian Refor-
mation.
Little or no jealousy-at any rate, little or no active
opposition-seems to have been aroused by the school of
Valdes during his own lifetime. Within that space of per-
haps eight years, it may be fairly said that this type of
ardent but undogmatic piety, raying out from other centers
as well as this, had taken possession of the highest intel-
ligence and noblest life throughout Italy. Among those
who came directly under the personal influence of Valdes
or of his immediate disciples we find that illustrious lady
Vittoria Colonna, a correspondent of Ochino, and a devout
student of the new word, whose friendship with Michael
Angelo (who addressed to her the lofty strain of his noble
Sonnets) makes one of the finest and purest pages of Ital-
ian literary history; the lady Olimpia Morata, of wonderful
genius and learning, an instructress in the court of Ferrara,
a declared Protestant in belief, who with serene courage
followed her husband (a young German physician) through
years of bitter exile and died of the miseries of it; her
deeply attached friend, the Duchess of Ferrara, Renée
(Renata), daughter of Louis XII. and sister to the queen
of France, who bravely and steadily befriended the Re-
Band
12
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. I.
formers for many years, till subdued by her husband's
harshness and threats of the Inquisition;¹ the great scholar
and professor of eloquence, Aonio Paleario, friend of Ochino,
who taught with freedom and power in most of the
chief towns of northern Italy, unconscious or disdainful of
danger, till he was seized and after two years' imprisonment
hanged and burned in Rome at the age of seventy; even
Reginald Pole, a cardinal and a Plantagenet, cousin of the
Tudors, a friend of the Reformers and advocate of some of
their opinions, yet counseling them to keep their doctrine
to themselves, and consenting weakly to the cruelties of
Bloody Mary: "whether of good or bad faith in all this,
God knows," says an Italian compiler of these times.2
The writings of Valdes include the counsels of personal
piety already mentioned; a brief digest called "One Hun-
dred and Ten Considerations," held to be his most char-
acteristic exposition; and comments on several books of
Scripture, of which those on the Psalms (Saltario), on
'Matthew," and on Romans." are best known.
In gen-
eral, these counsels and comments are purely those of prac-
tical and personal religion, extraordinarily free from any
assumption or even hint of dogma. The one point of
Christ's sacrifice is, indeed, incessantly urged, in the gen-
eral sense of the Reformers, and with no reference what-
ever to the mystery in which it has been enveloped by the
church; but, apart from this, there is little or nothing to
suggest an opinion on any point in controversy. As to
such, he is betrayed into no statement that may not be put
in the very words of Scripture: this makes what is some-
times called "his private opinion on the Trinity." In the
commentary on Matthew (for example), perhaps the most
C
(C
Supe
1 Generosa d'animo, colta di spirito, gentile di modi, e oggetto d'ammirazi-
one per quanti la circondarano.
2 "(
La Riforma in Italia nel Secolo xvi." (anon. Turin, 1856), p. 94. .
:
“THE BENEFit of chrisT.”
13
extended and formal of all, he speaks of Christ as Son of
God and therefore in his own nature divine; but uses not
a single phrase which a Unitarian of the older school might
not have written, or which a devout Trinitarian would not
heartily accord with. The line that was presently to di-
vide Protestant from Catholic so sharply is not (I think) so
much as once hinted at in any of these writings, except by
their absolute silence as to anything which the ecclesiastical
system might prescribe.
The best known type of this religious movement is a
small manual entitled "Benefit of Christ Crucified." This
little book, which is the very mirror of the life here de-
scribed, had so great currency in Italy that more than 40,000
copies are said to have been issued from the press of Ven-
ice alone; and it was so carefully suppressed that it was
thought, till its rediscovery in 1855, to be (says Macaulay)
"as hopelessly lost as the second decade of Livy." It is
the voice not so much of an individual, but rather of a
school or company of associates; and it may well enough
be held as the real legacy of Valdes to his own generation.
To find the motive of its persistent suppression in later
years, we have only to note its complete silence as to the
doctrine or discipline which the papal church made all-
essential; and refer to the time-some twenty years later
than that we have been considering-when the most inno-
cent-seeming symptom of a piety at variance with that
church, or independent of it, was mercilessly hunted down
and trampled out.
Into that cruelest of tragedies we need not enter here.
1
1 Published in Venice, 1543; and, a copy having been found in the library
at Cambridge, in London (1855), under the name of Paleario. It has been
ascribed to Valdes himself, and to several of his circle-Benedetto of Man-
tua, Ochino, or Flaminio; but, from a sentence in one of Paleario's letters,
it seems to be clearly his, and is generally so regarded.
14
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. I.
It is enough to copy from this manual a few sentences
which show the characteristic style of doctrine, clothing
itself in the very thoughts and phrases dearest to the heart
of the Reformation,-prefixing a statement (taken here
from Cantù) of the doctrinal theory it rests on. We have
in it a type of opinion which it will be important hereafter
to bear in mind.
86
Original sin" (it teaches) "was the cause of the ills we
suffer, though we knew it not till the law was given. The
first office of the law was to give us knowledge of sin;
next, to enlarge its field by forbidding evil desire; third, to
show the wrath of God toward those who do not observe
the law; fourth, to inspire man with fear; fifth, to constrain
him to turn to Christ, on whom alone depend the forgive-
ness of sin, justification, and all our [hope of] salvation. If
the sin of Adam was alone enough, without our fault, to
render us all sinners, a fortiori the obedience ("righteous-
ness") of Christ will have power to render us all righteous
and children of grace without our coöperation-which could
not be virtue in us, unless we should ourselves become
good first. God, having already punished all sin in his
best-beloved Son, has granted to mankind universal par-
don, which every believer in the gospel shares. From
Christ alone, therefore, may each one know his own salva-
tion, confiding not in his own works, but in him alone.
This pious confidence enters into our heart by act of the
Holy Spirit, communicated to us through faith; and faith
comes never without the love of God. Hereby we feel
ourselves moved with a glad and active (operoso) zeal to do
good works; we feel the power to fulfill them, and to suf-
fer all things for the love and glory of our merciful Father.
Wherefore," the manual goes on to say, "it may be
clearly understood that the pious Christian need feel no
doubt of the pardon of his sins, nor of the grace of God;
-
K
J
DOCTRINE OF GOOD WORKS.
15
still, to satisfy the reader, I will write down some authori-
ties of holy teachers which confirm this faith." Here he
introduces very many names (presumably Catholic), and
resumes: "Let no one, however, think-with those false
Christians who customarily degrade [the things they han-
dle]-that true faith consists in believing the history of
Christ, as if we should believe that of Cæsar or Alexander,
or as the Turks believe their Koran. Faith does not of
itself, indeed, renew the heart, or warm it with the love of
God, or bring forth good works and change of life: these
things proceed alone from that true faith which is the work
of God in us. Justifying faith is like flame, which cannot
but yield light: thus it cannot burn sin away without the
aid of good works. And as, seeing a flame that sheds no
light, we know that it is false, and painted, so when in any
one we see not the light of good works, we say he has not
the true faith inspired by God." (Cantù, vol. ii, pp. 380,
381.)
This doctrine of "Works" contains, in fact, the key to
that stage of the Reformation at which we are now arrived.
As the historian calls us to note, it is as far from the daring
Lutheran assertion of a faith wholly independent of works,¹
as from the formal Catholic pretension of works apart from
faith. But it was the Catholic Church, not the Lutheran,
that felt itself assailed. If not the righteousness it claimed
to teach, at any rate the costly mechanism by which it
sought to "transact the great business of salvation," was
in danger of getting obsolete. In 1542, the year after
Valdes died, the "Supreme and Universal Tribunal of
1 "When Melanchthon sought at Ratisbon, in 1541, to come to terms
with the Catholics, saying that by justifying faith should be understood a
faith that works by love, Luther declared that this was a pitiful makeshift,
a new patch on an old garment, by which the rent is made worse,”—Cantù,
vol. i., p. 297.
16
[CHAP. I.
THE UNITARIANS.
Inquisition" was established at Rome. He, at least, had
escaped the evil to come. In 1565 his dearest and first
disciple, Giulia Gonzaga, was set free by a timely death
from the summons of that terrible tribunal; letters from
her, produced in the trial of Carnesecchi, had shown that
there had been correspondence between them and Calvin
at Geneva. The steps by which, within the next fifteen
years, the germinating seeds of the Reform were stamped
out in Italy, belong to a wider field than ours.¹ We have
only to follow the fortunes of two or three, whose exile
brought them within the lines of our story.
-
The most noted and conspicuous among them, of those
who belonged to the immediate circle of Valdes, was the
famous preacher Bernard (or Bernardino) Ochino.
He was
a native of Siena, born in 1487 (four years after Luther),
and in his childhood must have known the fame, possibly
heard the voice, of Savonarola. To that wonderful gift of
an impassioned and popular eloquence Ochino was held to
be the true successor. "He preaches," said Charles V.,
who heard him once in Naples, "with such spirit and de-
votion that he would make stones weep" (farebbe piangere
i sassi). He emulated the great Dominican in austerity,
joining first the strictest of the Franciscan order, the Cor-
deliers, and then the Capuchins, who for greater severity
had seceded from them in 1525. At middle life he was
the most renowned of preachers in all Italy. "I have
opened my heart," wrote Cardinal Bembo, "to Ochino as
to Christ himself; I have never seen a holier man." He
was sent to officiate during one religious season (1538) in
Naples, where he not only frequented the society of Val-
des, but is said to have received from him topics, argu-
ments, and hints to carry before the great crowds that
J
ykų
1 The general story is well and briefly told by McCrie; individual details
are more amply given in Young's "Life of Paleario,"
17
heard him from the pulpit. Under these influences a new
life opened before him. Without any thought of separat-
ing himself from the Roman Church, and while accepting
the highest honors that could be given by the religious
order he belonged to, he was among the foremost of those
who sought a radical reformation of that church from
within.
OCHINO.
It chanced that, in 1542, one of his associates died sud-
denly, poisoned (it was said) by some ecclesiastic.
A pas-
sionate appeal of Ochino at Venice against such methods
of attack on the free conscience opened the eyes of the
authorities. The tribunal of the Inquisition had been es-
tablished at Rome on the 12th of July that very year, and
he was summoned to give an account of himself before it.
In his daring fashion he would have obeyed; but at
Bologna he received a warning which led him to consult
his friend Vermigli (Peter Martyr), then at Florence, who
convinced him that silence or death was the choice he
would have to make. In a pathetic letter to the lady
Vittoria Colonna he justified the step he was about to
take; and, aided by the noble Duchess of Ferrara, the
two friends made their escape to Geneva in the month of
August. His fall, said the implacable Cardinal Caraffa,
afterward Paul IV., was like the fall of Lucifer, son of the
morning.
At Geneva, and again at Zurich and at Basel, Ochino
became the pastor of congregations of Italian exiles, who
had fled to the shelter generously opened to them by the
four reforming cantons. At Strasburg, where was a Prot-
estant theological college of note, the services of Vermigli,
most accomplished and eminent of teachers, were em-
ployed in instruction; and here, a little later, Ochino joined
him as preacher to the congregation. We find, indeed,
that the restless and erratic temper of the emotional orator
Algal
18
[CHAP. I.
THE UNITARIANS.
was greatly steadied and balanced all along by the calmer
judgment and larger intelligence of his companion. While
the two friends were here together, in the first days of
young King Edward in England, Archbishop Cranmer,
then looking abroad for what might confirm and illustrate
the new reign of Protestantism, invited them both to posts
of dignity and service there—wishing too, no doubt, to ad-
vance the principles of the Reformation somewhat further
than had been suffered under the imperious Henry, who
piqued himself on a "Catholic" orthodoxy all his own.
Vermigli was appointed professor of theology at Oxford,
and Ochino as a canon of Canterbury, with liberty to re-
side in London. In 1550, under the general direction of
a liberal-minded Polish noble, John Laski, was established
"the Strangers' Church," holding by royal grant an ancient
estate of the Augustinian friars, Ochino being special pas-
tor of the Italians. This Strangers' Church, with its eleven
affiliated provincial congregations, became the nursery of
a religious life that ripened afterward into various forms of
free speculation and dissent; and it is held, in particular,
to have been the real fountain-head of English Unitarian-
ism. It represented at this time a population of Protest-
ant refugees, chiefly from the Netherlands, which has been
estimated to number more than five thousand."
1
And here a strange episode occurs, throwing a vivid
side-light on the temper of theological discussion in that
day. At the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553, foreign
Protestants living in England were naturally quick to avail
themselves of the days of grace allowed them, to seek ref-
1 Professor Bonet-Maury notes that Norwich, the seat of one of the affili-
ated churches, was the English home of the Huguenot family of Martineau.
2 When it was restored under Elizabeth, in 1560, it was put under the
jurisdiction of the Bishop of London; and such shelter as it might give to
foreign heresy was denied to Englishmen in 1573.
QUEEN MARY'S PRISONS.
19
uge again upon the Continent. But at home it came to
pass that the most orthodox of Anglicans, Cranmer at
their head, were put under the same condemnation and
cast into the same prisons with the most obnoxious of
heretics. These latter caught at their chance, and were
eager to convert their fellow-prisoners; so that presently
those places of confinement became scenes of acrimonious
dispute. "Some rejected the divinity of Christ, others
his humanity. Some believed in the impersonality of the
Holy Spirit; or, admitting that the Holy Spirit was a per-
son, denied his supreme godhead. Some, again, called in
question the truth of the doctrine of original sin, election
and predestination, justification by faith, and Christ's de-
scent into hell. Some denied the validity of infant bap-
tism, and some condemned the use of things indifferent in
religion." If it is interesting to find all these diversities
of modern creeds contending with one another and with
that established by law, in the prisons of Bloody Mary,
still more curious will be a glance at the temper of these
disputes, as we find it shown in a tract of Archdeacon
Philpot of Winchester, himself one of the martyrs of that
day, written to justify the insult he had put upon a fel-
low-prisoner. It is entitled "An Apology of Jhon Phil-
pot; Written for spyttyng on an Arian: With an Invective
against the Arians, the veri naturall Children of Anti-
christ." The following abridged extract will suffice:
"I am amased, and do tremble both in body and sowle,
to heare at this day certen men, or rather not men, but
covered with man's shape, parsons of a bestly understand-
yng, who, after so many and manifest benefyts and graces
of oure Lorde God and Saviour Jesus Christ,--and de-
clared to be both God and man by the spirit of sanctifica-
ARA
W
1 Copied by Wallace (vol. i., p. 23 et seq.) from Strype's "Ecclesiastical
Memoirs," vol. iii., pt. 2, p. 363.
20
[CHAP. I.
THE UNITARIANS.
tion, the eternal Son of God with power,-notwithstand-
yng are not ashamed to robbe this eternal Son of God,
and owr most marciful Saviour, and to pluck hym out of
the glorious throne of his unspeakable Deity. O infidelity,
more terrible than the palpable darknes of Egipt! O
flaming fyerbronnes of hell!-What harte may bare such
blasphemy? What eye may quietly behold such an en-
emy of God? What membre of Christ may allowe, yn
any wyse, such a membre of the Divel? . . . What faithful
servant can be content to heare his master blasphemed?
And if perchance he shew any just anger therfore, all
honest men do beare with his doying in that behalf:
and cannot you, Christian bretherne and sisterne, beare
with me, who, for the just zeale of the glory of my God
and Christ, beyng blasphemed by an arrogant, ignorant,
and obstinately blinded Arian, making hymself equal with
Christ, saying, that God was none otherwyse in Christ,
than God was in hym; making hym but a creature, as
he was hymself, [pretending] you to be without synne as
well as Christ, did spyt on hym?"
And any day, as he well knew, the archdeacon was lia-
ble to be burned at the same stake with his Arian fellow-
misbeliever.
From their three years' stay in England, Vermigli and
Ochino returned to Switzerland. They lived mostly at
Zurich, where their lives ran, in general, peaceably to-
gether, the stronger exercising (it would seem) a whole-
some restraint upon the more emotional temper of the
other. For Ochino's only creed, it has been said, was
"universal love and one universal church "-surely the
most generous of gospels. But this religion of pure senti-
ment has its risks; and these are apt to be at their worst
when the sentimentalist is turned of sixty. Ochino did
not quite escape the penalties of so loose a creed, in the
S
S
!
OCHINO'S LATER LIFE.
21
loss of public confidence. It would perhaps have been
better for his peace if he had kept true to his monastic
vow. But, marrying late in life, in a strange country, and
in poverty, he found himself in old age a widower, bur-
dened with the charge, for which he was peculiarly unfit, of
children who died before his eyes in his last and painfulest
exile.1
We find, too, a lack of dignity and self-respect in his
impulsive expressions of opinion. When in Poland, in
1559, he had joined "at a private conference" the anti-
trinitarian party, even then under some legal disability,
although he never frankly declared himself Unitarian in
belief. Various writings of his—including a dialogue on
the Real Presence and a little treatise on Purgatory-are
still to be found in libraries, testifying to his restless habit
of drawing everything into public question. In 1563,
the year after Vermigli's death, he filled the sum of his
offenses by printing at Basel, in two small volumes, whose
thin disguise was easily seen through, thirty dialogues, on
almost every topic held in controversy at that day. The
dialogue form gives a dangerous freedom of speculation,
which in general he did not abuse: the worst that could
be charged was that, like Abelard's "Yes and No," it is a
cover for secret skepticism. A brief treatise on Freewill,
fitly enough called "Labyrinths," showing all the diffi-
culties of the question and offering no solution, well shows
this quality of his mind.
Most of these discussions are upon the common ground
of theology or ethics. But the argument on the Trinity,
A
G
1 His wife was a worker in linen (lingère) whom he had brought with
him out of Italy, probably one of his humbler disciples, whom (it is likely)
he married to avoid scandal, as well as to give her a safe and respectable
position. She was killed by a fall downstairs, which led Theodore Beza to
refer, brutally, to the divine judgment on Ochino's heresy.
22
[CHAP. I.
THE UNITARIANS.
and that on the lawfulness of polygamy, proved his ruin.
In the former the difficulties of the doctrine are put for-
ward with emphasis and vigor, while its defense (which
the writer seems to claim for his own position) looked to
unfriendly eyes intentionally weak. The other gave still
deeper offense, since the flagrant case of Philip of Hesse
had made the topic of polygamy a tender one for Protest-
ants to handle. All the respectability of Zurich was out-
raged. The dialogue was translated out of its classic
Latin into broad German, and was laid before the magis-
trates. Ochino's justification of himself was considered
to be evasive and weak, if not insulting to his judges.
He was ordered to leave the city. It was midwinter, and
he besought that in mercy he might be allowed to wait
till spring. But the very terms in which he urged his
plea were interpreted as a fresh affront. And so, at the
age of seventy-six, he set forth with his four boys to find
shelter in Basel, in Augsburg, in Schaffhausen, and finally
under the bleak sky of Poland.
Eyen this poor refuge was denied him by an edict-
issued by King Sigismund under pressure from Cardinal
Borromeo-that warned away all assailants of the Trinity,
and he found his last retreat in still ruder Moravia. "I
must obey the magistrate," he said to friends who urged
him to appeal and wait, "even if I should be torn by fam-
ished wolves." His boys had died of plague in Poland,
before his eyes; and the end came to him a little later,
when nearly seventy-eight, early in January, 1565. In pity
of these sorrows one might almost pardon the strange ar-
rogance of his self-assertion once in Cracow : Think not
that you are come hither to-day to see any other than a
true apostle of Christ. For the name and glory of Christ,
and to make clear the truth of heavenly things, I have
suffered far more than any man or any apostle, be he who
S
"
B
23
he may, has suffered for the faith. Nor, if the gift of
miracles has not been granted to me as to them, should
you have faith in me less than in them, since we teach
the same things received from the same God; and it is a
miracle great enough, to have suffered what we suffer."1
We have seen in several of the extracts given above how
intense a conviction of the absolute divinity and supreme
sovereignty of Christ had been fostered under the ecclesi-
astical discipline of the thousand years that went before
the great conflict of the Reformation; so that it is no
wonder that any question of that conviction should have.
been held by most of the Reformers themselves as a sort
of treason to their rightful King. In fact, the first devel-
oped form of Unitarian opinion-that for which Servetus
suffered at Geneva in 1553-held that "the whole nature
and essence of God is in Christ," as at once the revealed
God of the Old Testament and the Divine Word of the
New; in whom, most literally, "dwelt the fullness of the
Godhead bodily"; who is, to us, the only Deity we can
truly worship, since to us the Eternal Source of Being is
necessarily and forever unknown. The deeply instructive
and tragic story of this next development of opinion will
make the topic of the succeeding chapter.
1 Cantù, vol. ii., p. 63.
I
DOCTRINE CONCERNING CHRIST.
#
K
a
CHAPTER II.
SERVETUS.
THE name of Servetus is to most persons best known,
perhaps only known, by the ghastly martyrdom he under-
went at Geneva, But from our present point of view it
has a far higher interest and value; for he was the first
to attempt that still unfinished task of modern criticism,
to interpret the Christian doctrine direct from the Bible
text, and that alone, discarding all the established creeds
and all ecclesiastical tradition. Thus a somewhat full
study of him is essential to the purpose we have in hand;
for, though far from being a Unitarian by any modern
standard of belief, his life marks a very critical point in
the movement which Unitarianism represents. His at-
tempt shows faults of the man and faults of the time -ar-
rogance of temper, excess of self-confidence, haste, disdain
of his antagonists, and total ignorance of much that the
critic of our day must take for granted. But, with what-
ever defect in knowledge or temper, it was intelligent,
bold, self-consistent, made with absolute conviction of
being right; and so, not at all unworthy to be the pioneer
in its own line of advance.
We do not find it easy to understand the motive which
made the death of Servetus appear at the time a necessary
and even meritorious act; still less, the eager assent with
which the leading Reformers, almost without exception,
triumphed in it. Calvin was not alone party to it. Ser-
vetus was, in the strictest sense, a victim to the general
24.
Patt
THE REFORMERS ON SERVETUS.
25
opinion.
He escaped from the fire of the Roman Inquisi-
tion only to perish more cruelly in the flame kindled by
Protestant intolerance, in the very month that saw Mary
Tudor seated on the throne of England. It will be con-
venient to copy here the words in which Calvin introduces
him to us in the first sentences of his "Refutation":
"As in our time God has bestowed upon the world this
singular grace, to bring back to life the pure doctrine of
the gospel, which had so long been buried, so in our own
knowledge the devil has used his customary craft to
darken this light, raising up many fantastical spirits which
have sown the seeds of various errors, as of Anabaptists,
Freethinkers, and the like. But among the rest has been
a certain Spaniard, Michael Servetus by name, who has
heaped up a confused mass of lawless dreams, such that
his impiety surpasses all the mischief which others have
contrived to do. Though I plainly saw that his poison
was more deadly, still it did not seem to me expedient to
apply the remedy direct, and contend against his errors of
set purpose, seeing that their absurdity was so gross, that
I might hope they would soon vanish of themselves in
smoke, without any man's opposing them." This "Ref-
utation," signed by fourteen others of the Protestant
leaders, in which it is argued that heretics must be put
down by the sword, was published a little less than six.
months after the burning of Servetus. In reply to it Me-
lanchthon wrote: "I have read your brilliant refutation of
his horrible blasphemies. I thank the Son of God, who
has given you the prize of victory. The church now and
..
ta
Contr
T
1 Works, vol. viii., p. 457. The English Puritan, John Owen, says of
Servetus a century later (1655): "He is the only person in the world, that
I ever read or heard of, that ever died upon the account of religion, in refer-
ence to whom the zeal of them that put him to death may be acquitted."
-"Vindiciae Evangelica."
26
[CHAP. II.
THE UNITARIANS.
hereafter owes and will owe to you her gratitude. I
assent absolutely to your judgment. I assert that your
magistrates have done right in putting the blasphemer to
death by the regular forms of justice." And three years
later he wrote, "It is a pious and memorable example to
all posterity."1
What was the career, and what was the theological
offense, that called down this all but universal execration?
Michael Servetus was a gentleman's son of Aragon
(probably), born it is uncertain whether in 1509 or 1511,
his testimony on his two trials making the year doubtful:
we may here assume the earlier. For twenty years of
his life, during his residence in France, he was known
only as Michel de Villeneuve (Michael of Villanueva), from
the name of his birthtown. Of very precocious intelli-
gence, he received his early instruction at the regular con-
vent school, and then (it is supposed) at Saragossa. Some-
where about the age of sixteen, electing law instead of the
ecclesiastical career he had been intended for, he was sent
to the celebrated college at Toulouse. Here the tradi-
tions seem to have been grave, almost monastic, with
some vivid memories of the old Albigensian persecution:
thus we read of "the iron cage suspended from a beam
above the river, for ducking heretics until they died";
and of "the religious processions that filed incessantly
through the streets."2 Under these influences the attrac-
tion of law gave way to the keener fascination of theology.
The Lutheran writings had at this time considerable circu-
lation in Spain and in the south of France; and we hear
of a treatise on "Rational Theology" by Raymond de
Sabunda, making Nature as well as Scripture one way of
ascent to divine knowledge, which is commonly supposed
1 Works, vol. ix., p. 131.
看着
​2 Cited in R. Willis's Servetus and Calvin," p. 12.
S
•
SERVETUS AND MELANCHTHON.
27
He says
to have influenced the young student's course.
himself that he learned some things from Erasmus. As
early as sixteen, or thereabout, he must have been an
eager student of the Bible, bringing to it at least a fair
elementary knowledge of Hebrew as well as Greek, with
an extraordinarily vigorous and independent mind of his
own. A genius for religion as well as a genius for con-
quest, we are told, was the haughty claim of his country-
men in those days. Spaniards were "the knights of
faith."
Categ
((
In particular, Servetus is held to have been influenced
by a small treatise of Melanchthon, called "Theological
Topics" (Loci Thcologici), which was then the universally
accepted text-book of the Reformed theology. This was
first published in 1521 (the year that Luther appeared at
Worms), when its writer was only twenty-four years old,
and was at once received with extraordinary favor. That
little book," said Luther, "contains more solid doctrine.
than any other since the days of the apostles."1 Its frank
protest against the logical method of the schools was sure
to attract the student, eager for novelty, and encourage
him to bolder steps. There might be prejudice against
Luther, who had headed a revolt dangerous to state as well
as to church; but the young, eloquent scholar, associated
almost from boyhood with the studies of Reuchlin and
Erasmus, those famous men of letters, was sure of a more
friendly hearing. His words almost certainly confirmed
the purpose to which Servetus held with singular tenacity
1 A "centennial" edition, a page-for-page and word-for-word copy of the
first, was published at Leipzig in 1821, giving with it certain fundamental
changes in later editions. Those of 1535, 1543, and 1559 show a widening
departure from the original point of view-the discussions at Augsburg, with
the bolder criticism of Servetus, having forced attention to the metaphysical
grounds of the doctrine then deemed orthodox. The passages cited below
(p. 31) are copied from the Leipzig edition.
28
[CHAP. II.
THE UNITARIANS.
through life, to work out a more simple, more logical, more
purely Scriptural form of exposition than any Reformer
had yet dared to think.¹
These studies were interrupted, in the summer of 1529,
by a summons to attend Quintana, the emperor's private
confessor, to the convention at Bologna2 and to the diet
held the following year at Augsburg. Quintana was a
Spanish monk, likely to be trusted by the emperor in coun-
sel, to say nothing of the immense authority conferred on
him by his office. He was, besides, a man of open mind
and liberal temper, put for the occasion in place of one
more bigoted and severe, who was dispatched on a compli-
mentary mission to Rome. Approaching with slow and
halting steps a conference likely to decide his whole future
policy toward the Reformers, Charles found it essential to
be cautious and moderate in his dealing with them; and
for this the qualities of his confessor were what he needed.
At Spires, in 1529, they had signed the celebrated Protest
against the terms enacted by the diet there, and by that
act had come to be known under the formidable name
"Protestants." This attitude of theirs was menacing,
backed as they were by the high national spirit of the
secular German princes. But they had not yet learned to
distrust the emperor's good faith. Above all, they knew
that their allegiance was of value to him, flanked as he
was by the hostility of France and the Turk. They put
forward Melanchthon, accordingly, as their champion like-
1 All this is very eloquently said by Tollin in his most instructive book,
"Melanchthon und Servet," without, however, citing any external evidence
of such influence. Servetus nowhere, except in a final appeal to Melanchthon
appended to his "Restitutio," speaks of him in person, though appearing as
a constant critic of his argument; while Melanchthon betrays an anxious
study of his critic, to whom he refers with increasing animosity, culminating
in the words before quoted.
2 See note, p. 6 (above): “With these very eyes,” etc.
4
29
liest to keep the peace, detaining Luther at the safe dis-
tance of Coburg, a hundred and twenty miles away.
In the very critical negotiations at Augsburg, lasting
nearly six months (from early in April, 1530), Melanchthon
appeared more than once to go dangerously beyond his
instructions on the way toward Rome, and had to be held
sharply in hand by Luther and the secular princes. Hold-
ing that there was no doctrinal point of difference at stake,
he was led to accept, one after another, positions of the
Scholastic theology which he found essential to his own
argument on matters of faith, particularly the Trinity; and
of these positions we shall find that he has a disturbing
consciousness when he comes to face the criticisms of Ser-
vetus. But with the Catholic party the question narrowed
down to the very practical one touching the efficacy of
sacraments, authority of the priesthood, and the value of
works" as essential to salvation. Once on this ground,
compromise was plainly not to be thought of. "Salvation
by faith" not "works"-was the one thing at issue. The
conferences came to an end with the rejection of the
Protestants' "Apology" on the 22d of September. The
Reformation itself was saved, under a "Confession" that
still left it something substantial to contend for,
CC
CONFERENCES AT AUGSBURG.
As confidential attendant upon Quintana, Servetus was
himself, if not a member of the emperor's household, at
least very close to it. He was thus likely to be witness to
some of the more private discussions, and may even have
come to know more than one of the leading Reformers in
person-nay, have visited Luther (as is possible) so far
away as Coburg. This critical time of the Reformation
was a critical moment in his own career. He had already
been sharply offended by the ostentatious despotism of the
hierarchy. He was now brought face to face at once with
the strength and weakness of the Reformers.
His own
30
1
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
scheme of reconstruction was taking shape in his thought.
Personal independence might seem all that was needed to
complete it. Suddenly, without either quarrel or explana-
tion that we know, he left the service of Quintana and re-
tired to Switzerland, the common refuge of freethinkers.
We find him presently at Basel, in lively dispute with
Ecolampadius, who urges against him, "You do not ad-
mit, then, that the Son of God was to be a man, but [hold]
that a man was to be the Son of God;" and bids him
"confess the Son consubstantial and coeternal with God,
that we may hold you to be a Christian."1 In his reply
Servetus seems to dread some restraint, and begs that he
may not be hindered from putting forth in France certain
"books" which he has ready against the fair at Lyons.
2
This means, no doubt, the first literary work of Servetus,
"De Trinitatis Erroribus" ("Errors Implied in the Trin-
ity"). It appears in a neat volume of about two hundred
pages, handsomely printed at Hagenau, near Strassburg,
without name of publisher or place of publication, but
with the writer's name in full: per Michaelem Serveto alias
Revès, under the date 1531.3 The disputes with Ecolam-
padius had probably made Servetus eager, and his pub-
lisher reluctant, to incur the risk. It was followed the
next year by two dialogues on the Trinity, in which the
argument is expanded and reinforced, and four brief essays
-on Justification, Christ's Kingdom, Law and Gospel, and
Charity—all bound up with it. A second edition, nearly
facsimile, was published after his death in Holland.
Before we consider the substance of the book, it is well
1 Calvin, Works, vol. viii., p. 861; also, touching Zwingli, p. 744.
2 Conjecturally, his mother's family name.
3 A very handsome copy was kindly put at my service by Rev. S. M.
Jackson, secretary of the Society of Church History. A manuscript copy is
in the Harvard University library.
L
MELANCHTHON'S "TOPICS.”
31
to recall for a moment the argument and style of Melanch-
thon's "Topics," which made, in a sense, the immediate
occasion of it. The motive with Melanchthon, as we have
seen, is almost purely practical and undogmatic. Specula-
tions on the metaphysical grounds or reasons of a trinity
he seems wholly to disown. "To know Christ," he says,
"is to know his works (beneficia); not, as the dogmatists
teach, to gaze upon the mode of incarnation. . . . It is
Christian knowledge to know what the law requires;
whence you are to obtain power to fulfill the law, or par-
don for transgression; how the afflicted conscience may
be comforted" (p. 9). "The Holy Spirit is nothing else
than the living will and act of God; when, therefore, we
are new-born of the Spirit, which is the living will of God,
we already of ourselves do that very thing which the law
commands" (p. 128). He thus discards the theory of
hypostasis, or quasi-personality, the ground (as commonly
held) of the church doctrine of the Trinity. The very
term hypostasis, which figures largely in his later discus-
sion of the subject, appears only once in all this essay, and
is there very inadequately rendered "expectation of things
hoped for" (Heb. xi. 1). This rendering, further, betrays
the weakest point in Melanchthon's view, making the
Christian salvation a matter of promise only, not of present
fulfillment; against which Servetus, with strong emphasis,
urges the assurance of present salvation-as an earnest of
that hereafter-in the sense of Paul, and of all in every
time who have best understood the mind of Paul. Again,
in exposition of the Divine Word: "The Son is called
image, or word; he is thus an image or likeness begotten
by the thought of God"-further explained by saying
that, while our thoughts are but evanescent acts, into
which we do not convey our being, the thought of God is
"an image of himself, not evanescent, but subsisting by the
}
32
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
communication to it of his own being" (p. 250). This
might, indeed, be taken as a noble, poetic way of defining
every act of immediate creation; but when, instead, it only
asserts the exceptional generation of one Divine Person in
the image of the Father, it becomes a phrase of arbitrary
dogmatics, opening an easy way to more rationalizing
speculation, which Servetus takes prompt advantage of.
Turning back now to his essay, we are struck first of all
by the wonderful self-assertion of this youth of two-and-
twenty-what some have called the haughty temper of the
Spaniard that shows in it. Servetus never appears in the
attitude of the modest learner; not even as a sober reason-
er, ready to meet an opponent on equal terms in courteous
debate. He is always self-confident, ardent, aggressive.
In stating his point he takes a tone of superiority, almost
of condescension, and demands rather than invites assent.
His argument is oftenest pure assertion; often, again, it is
(as in speaking of moral freedom and the value of right
conduct) plain good sense, cutting through the subtleties
of formal theology in a fashion his opponents were no way
prepared for. Perhaps they found it hardest of all to
understand his plea (p. 78), "All my philosophy and all my
science I find in the Bible."
S
It is to be observed of his argument, that he nowhere
attacks the Trinity or the deity of Christ,-which indeed
in his own fashion he explicitly asserts,-but only attempts
to show how those most orthodox of terms are to be under-
stood. The opening paragraph is as follows: "In explor-
ing the holy mysteries of the Divine Triad I have held that
one should begin with the Man; for I see that many,
having not the foundation of Christ, in their flight of spec-
ulation on the Word ascribe little or nothing to the Man,
and even give the true Christ completely over to oblivion.
These I will take care to remind who this Christ really is.
"DE TRINITATIS ERRORIBUS.”
Further, what and how much is to be ascribed to Christ,
the church shall judge. Since the [masculine] pronoun
shows that what they call 'the Humanity' is a man, I will
assume these three points: 1. This [man] is Jesus Christ;
2. He is the Son of God; 3. He is God" (p. 1). And
again: “What is reflected [of Deity] in the Word is Christ
himself: as, if I hold a mirror, you may see me both face
to face and in the mirror, but it is only one person that
you see; . . . in such a mirror God willed and ordained
that he should himself be seen" (pp. 94, 108). "The Word,
when God utters it, is God himself speaking; and since
the Word was made man, we understand by it Christ
himself, who is the Word of God" (p. 48).
"Christ
is himself the face [that is, the visible aspect, facies] of
the Father. There is no other Person of God but Christ;
there is no other hypostasis of God but he; the entire
godhead of the Father is in him" (p. 112). 'God
in himself cannot be conceived in thought. He is known
not in his nature, but in manifestation (specie); not by
nature, but by grace" (p. 12). All theories of the Divine
nature, apart from the Word, are "blasphemies against
Christ" (p. 103). "The only Trinity is a trinity of mani-
festations or modes of action, not of persons; and, as
Tertullian teaches, that trinity will cease in the eternal
world" (p. 82). There is no Spirit, properly so called,
outside of man. Stephen saw in vision both God and
Christ, but no third Person; 'Angels behold the face of
your Father,' not of a Trinity" (p. 30).
A few examples may be added, to illustrate the pungent
and epigrammatic turn of phrase: "Of Christ's kingdom
the door is Faith, the inner court is Eternal Life, and all
the way between is Love." Of the dogmatists, "All seem
to me to have part truth, part error; and every one looks
down on his neighbor's error, but sees not his own."
((
33
(
$
34
[CHAP. II.
THE UNITARIANS.
$
!
#
"More faith is to be given to one truth confessed by an
enemy, than to a thousand falsehoods of our friends.”
"The church may remain, and yet not remain the church
of God" (p. 43). "Faith is the substance of things hoped
for; but not the Lutheran faith" (p. 96); that is, a present
salvation, not a mere promise or "shadow of things to
come." And, touching predestination, "There is no past
or future with God" (p. 81).
J
Such a challenge as this was sure to command attention.
Melanchthon, in particular, found himself compelled to re-
consider his earlier positions. For a time he seems to hes-
itate. "You ask," he writes to a friend in February, 1533,
"what I think of Servetus. I see that he is keen and
adroit in disputation; but, frankly, I do not allow him
weight. He has, I think, confused fancies and notions
not well shaped out upon the things he treats. As to
Justification, he is clearly wild; about the Triad, you
know I have always feared those [disputes] would break
out some time. Good God! what tragedies will this
question stir among our successors: if the Logos is an
hypostasis, if the Spirit is an hypostasis! I turn to those
words of Scripture which bid us call upon Christ: this is
to render him Divine honor, and is full of consolation. But
to seek out anxiously the notions and differences of hypos-
tases is no great profit.
"1
This letter of Melanchthon has been called "the parting
of the ways." So far, it might seem possible that the
current of doctrinal opinion among the Reformers should
be turned into a broader channel, and that he had it in his
power to say the decisive word. He is just now giving
/
1 The italics here represent the Greek phrases which Melanchthon is fond
of using the term triad is less compromising than trinity.
"Where he
agrees with Rome," says Tollin,
says Tollin, "he talks church Latin; where he differs,
the language of the New Testament" (p. 84). •
SERVETUS IN FRANCE.
35
serious study to Servetus: Servetum multum lego; but
with less and less of favor. In a little more than a month
his course is clear; "he has decided to retract," and to
reconstruct his theology (as we have seen) on the ancient
lines. He approaches Rome by accepting the Scholastic
doctrine of the Trinity and the church doctrine of Works
-influenced, perhaps, by memories of the radical outbreak
of 1525 in Germany, and of the pressure brought to bear
at Augsburg.¹ A few years later (1539), he writes to put
the authorities of Venice on their guard against the dan-
gerous spread of the "Servetian heresy " in northern Italy.
"Spain," said Zanchi, "produced the hen, Italy has hatched
the eggs, and now we see the chicks beginning to peep!"
Meanwhile Servetus has vanished out of sight, and the
name is unheard among men till he reappears, twenty years
later, at his fatal trial in Geneva. Still in early youth, less
than twenty-four years old at most, he did not care to face
the storm he had raised. His reform might wait, and there
was enough else he had to learn and do. Those twenty
years he spent in France, as Michel de Villeneuve. For
some years he is a student in Paris, learning anatomy with
Vesalius, lecturing on astronomy and physical geography,
disputing on theology with Calvin, even practicing judicial
astrology, which brings him into trouble, and obliges him.
to seek another place and occupation. During some part.
of these years he has found employment with a publisher,
Trechsel, in Lyons; and of his labors at this time we have
an interesting proof in a handsome folio, a Latin translation
of the geographer Ptolemy, adorned with rude cuts and
some fifty ruder maps, published in 1535.2 The curious.
reader finds in this volume a paragraph on Palestine, which
was brought up against Servetus in Geneva, eighteen years
1 What the alternative might have been is eloquently put by Tollin (p. 133).
2 This edition is in the Harvard University library.
36
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
later, as a fling in the face of Scripture: "Still you must
know, kind reader, that such excellence has been unjustly
or in pure boasting ascribed to this land, seeing that the
experience itself of merchants and travelers avows it to
be rude, sterile, and lacking every charm. This Promised
Land you may call, indeed, a land of promise; but not (as
we should say) a land to praise."1
Now it happened that while lecturing in Paris Servetus.
had gained the friendship of a young ecclesiastic, Pierre
Paumier, who was in course of time promoted to be Arch-
bishop of Vienne, on the Rhone, twenty miles south of
Lyons. He now, hearing of his old friend as a physician
practicing in Charlieu, not far off, persuaded him to remove
to that city, giving him a home under his own protection
in the precincts of his palace. For twelve years Servetus
here led a life comparatively prosperous and at ease, with
widening reputation as a practitioner and a man of letters.
His most important work during this time was to revise
and superintend the printing of a very elegant Latin Bible-
Pagnini's version, first printed fourteen years before.2 The
new work appeared in 1542. In this Servetus took another
dangerous step in his chosen career of independent critic
and expositor. He was, perhaps, the first who introduced
historical criticism into the systematic study and interpreta-
tion of the Bible; and he did it, naturally, in a way to bring
him into trouble afterward. Thus, in commenting on the
Hebrew prophets, he takes the bold ground of asserting
that all their predictions, rightly understood, deal with
events and persons of their own time; and this method
he carries out, in his own positive fashion, in the case of
·
G
1 The reading and construction are here a little doubtful.
2 For an account of this extremely rare edition, see Le Long's "Bibliotheca
Sacra," vol. iv., pp. 473, 477, and in Pettigrew's "Bibliotheca Sussexiana,"
vol. ii., pp. 388, 408; compare Calvin, Works, vol. viii., p. 497. Presum-
ably, no copy of it exists in this country.
-
THE PAGNINI BIBLE.
""
those prophecies which have been and still are most confi-
dently held to foretell explicitly the distant reign of the
Messiah. He makes terms with current opinion, it is true:
"the sublimity and truth of these words belong to Christ
alone," whose passion they foretell; but the "natural
sense comes first. Catholic and Protestant were scandal-
ized alike. It may be true that Servetus only anticipates a
method that has since justified his bold sagacity in many
cases; but in the eyes of his contemporaries all the great
strains of prophecy seemed to be profaned by mere auda-
cious guess-work. The pierced hands and feet are those
of David, in flight among the thorny hills; the gall and
vinegar given him to drink point at the churlish inhospi-
tality of Nabal; the promised Child, the Wonderful, the
Prince of Peace, only anticipates the glories of Hezekiah's
reign; and, worst of all, the Man of Sorrows, on whom
"the Lord hath laid the iniquity of us all," is King Cyrus,
in the sharp conflict through which he fought his way to
victory!¹ To the mind of that day all this seemed, and it
was, a gratuitous offense. To us the interest is rather in
the premature attempt at a natural interpretation; still
more (it may be) in the hint it gives of a restless, vain, and
reckless temper in the man.
37
-
This task, it is likely, was what drew Servetus back into
the circle of irresistible attraction toward his earlier studies.
In 1546, four years after Pagnini's Bible appeared, he had
completed the draft of his one elaborated and independent
work, that which he gave the best labor of his life to finish,
and which in the finishing exacted the forfeit of his life.
This work is his "Christianity Restored "2 (Christianismi
Restitutio). It is, as we have it now, in size a thick 12mo
C
1 These examples are taken from Willis's "Servetus and Calvin.”
2 Better, perhaps, "Reconstruction of Christendom” (or, Christ's True
Kingdom”), as suggested by the Rev. Alexander Gordon.
38
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
(strictly, a small 8vo) of 734 pages. In substance it is
made up of three parts: à Recast, much modified and ex-
panded, of his early critique on the Trinity, in seven
books; a series of Essays, in seven books, on special topics.
-faith and justice of Christ's kingdom, regeneration, the
Lord's Supper, the reign of Antichrist-some of these
being treated with great vigor, power, and indignant elo-
quence; and a Sequel, of thirty letters written to Calvin
in the correspondence that now followed, closing with an
Apology" addressed to Melanchthon.
Servetus was
now, at the age of thirty-seven, fully equipped, as he felt,
to claim and hold his own place among the reformers of
the church. He would measure himself, first, with those
who seemed to be pillars of the Reformation; and so, in
an evil hour, he sent a copy of his manuscript draft to
Calvin in confidence (sub sigillo secreti), soliciting any com-
ment he might wish to make.
(C
•
as
The fortunes of the book, as we shall see, were
strange, almost as tragic, as those of the writer. Calvin
never returned the manuscript, which was long after hunted
up and used in evidence at the trial of Servetus. Instead
of comment he sent a copy of his own "Institutes," with
the remark that he had no time for discussion: his opinion,
he said, would be found recorded there. To his friend
Farel he wrote: Servetus has sent me a big volume of
his own ravings, with the swagger of a bully (thrasonice),
saying that I shall find wonderful and unheard-of things in
it. If I will consent, he proposes to come here. But I will
not pledge him my word; for if he should come, only let
my authority prevail, I will never let him go away alive."2
"C
1
1 Servetus's title is a manifest parallel, or travesty, of Calvin's "Christian-
ismi Institutio."
2 To Farel, February, 1546. He writes in nearly the same terms to Viret
(cited in evidence in the case of Bolsec).
“CHRISTIANISMI RESTITUTIO.”
39
Servetus, with like amenity, sent back his copy of the "In-
stitutio" with abundant comments in his own style written
on the margin. "There is hardly a page," writes Calvin
in his acrid phrase, "that is not defiled by his vomit."
The "Restitutio" went slowly through the press at
Vienne, under its author's supervision, at a small printing-
office in an obscure quarter of the town. This was not,
apparently, from any dread of publicity on his own part;
possibly on the printer's account, whom he did his best to
screen upon his trial. But, to give the book its best effect,
its publication was held in reserve as a surprise upon the
public. Early in the fatal year 1553 a thousand copies.
were made up in two great bales of five hundred each,
one being intended for the Easter fair at Frankfort, and
the other for distribution nearer home. With superfluous
courtesy, or (as he would call it) effrontery, an advance
copy was sent to Calvin. That copy is one of the three
(or four, the number stated by Professor Schaff) of the
original issue now known to exist; it was used in evidence
at the trial of Servetus in Geneva, and is now in the great
library at Paris, blackened by time and scrawled over with
notes of the prosecuting counsel. A second found its way
through many hands to Transylvania, and at length, for
safe-keeping, to the imperial library at Vienna. A third,
"the most valuable of all, containing the original Proœ-
mium, with pathetic autobiographical touches," belongs to
the University of Edinburgh.1
Servetus, as we must remember, was not yet known by
his true name in France. The only indications of it in the
volume are in the Hebrew text on the title-page, "At that
P
1 See note to an article by the Rev. A. Gordon in the "Theological Re-
view" for 1878, p. 412. An edition corresponding with this page for page
was printed in 1790.
}
40
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
1
time shall Michael the prince stand up" (Dan. xii. 1.); the
occurrence of the full name as that of a person in the dia-
logue (p. 199); and the initials M. S. V. at the end of the
book. These were not needed for identification, but were
enough for evidence. Calvin at once, through a corre-
spondence at second-hand which he would afterward have
gladly disowned, put the Catholic' authorities in Lyons.
upon the track of the heretic sheltered at Vienne in the
archbishop's own palace. So promptly was this done,
that the bale of books lying there was seized, unopened,
and within a few days Servetus was a prisoner of the In-
quisition. His arrest was procured by one of the basest
tricks even of the inquisitorial police-sending for him to
visit a sick patient, and waylaying him upon this errand of
mercy.
He was speedily tried, and condemned of heresy. But,
while waiting sentence, he quietly walked out of the prison
gate at four o'clock one fine morning, availing himself of
certain liberties allowed him-expressly, it would seem, to
invite his escape, since his medical skill had made him
friends among the officials. For four months he was now
lost to view. His effigy was burned in all due form.
bale of his books was consumed in the same pile.
Protestant authorities at Frankfort were warned meanwhile,
and the copies sent there were also destroyed.
The
The
For four months, then, Servetus wandered up and down
1 An allusion not only to his own name, but to the approaching reign of
the saints (Rev. xii. 7), which he eagerly predicted.
He himself says,
"There
2 The part taken in this by Calvin is doubtful.
is nothing in it," which Rilliet thinks conclusive. The letters were written
by a friend of his, De Trie, and at his instigation, perhaps dictation, as
shown by Dr. Willis to be almost certain. The second letter is particularly
damaging, as it shows that, to make the evidence conclusive, Calvin for-
warded to Vienne private communications in Servetus's handwriting, which
he had requested to have returned, but which were treacherously used
against him.
ARREST AND TRIAL OF SERVETUS.
RREST
41
in France, barred from Spain by the Inquisition, and vainly
seeking a way of escape to Naples. On the 12th of
August, on a Saturday night, he appeared at a little inn in
Geneva, meaning to seek a boat and cross the lake next
morning. But the strict Genevan Sabbath forced him to
wait. An improbable account even has it, that he had lain
hid there nearly a month, seeking to find friends, or make
them, among the enemies of Calvin; since this was a criti-
cal year in the town politics, and the contention was sharp
between the "patriots" who made the civil, and the
"strangers" who made the religious, aristocracy. On
Sunday, the 13th, attending with characteristic rashness at
the afternoon service, he was recognized, and before night
he was lodged in jail.
1
Of the tedious trial that followed the record is given in
minute detail, impossible to copy here. Two or three
points, however, we need to bear in mind. Calvin, while
he urged the prosecution and did all he could to bring it
to a fatal issue, appears only once in the course of the trial,
at the end of the preliminary four days' examination
(August 14th-17th), which was to prove the fact of heresy.
After this, the trial was purely a criminal process before
the Lesser Council, a secular tribunal of twenty-five mem-
bers, all laymen, to determine the guilt and penalty of the
propagation of heresy, as a crime against the public peace."
1 It has been very clearly summarized by Albert Rilliet, in a small volume,
of which a translation appeared in Edinburgh in 1846. A briefer and prob-
ably fairer account is given by Saisset in the "Revue des deux Mondes,”
1848, vol. i., p. 585.
(
2 The items of the charge are: 1. That for twenty-four years he has dis-
turbed the peace of the churches; 2. That he has printed an execrable book
(the "De Erroribus "); 3. That he has not ceased to scatter the poison of his
heresy; 4. That he has printed a second book (the "Restitutio "); 5. That
he has broken out from lawful imprisonment."-Calvin's Works, vol. viii.,
PP. 727-731. The tribunal at Vienne had found him guilty of "scandalous
heresy, dogmatizing, fabrication of new doctrines and heretical books, sedi-
1
✔
42
[CHAP. II.
THE UNITARIANS.
Again, this latter stage of the process, occupying two
months, shows three distinct periods, or phases. In the first
(August 21st-24th), Servetus, who has been thoroughly
cowed by the ferocity of the attack or else exhausted by
the debates, is submissive and humble, standing only on
his defense. In the second, he takes heart from the atti-
tude of the Council (which has just nullified a decree of
excommunication pronounced by Calvin and his clergy
against Berthelier, leader of the hostile party), and is so far
emboldened as to make a formal countercharge against.
Calvin, demanding that he be put on trial instead, under
the same risks and penalties, including forfeiture of goods
to him, Servetus. This stage continues till near the end
of September (August 23d-September 22d). Meanwhile,
it is resolved (contrary to the advice of Calvin) to ask
advice of the four leading Swiss Protestant churches,-in
Basel, Zurich, Berne, and Schaffhausen,—a course that oc-
cupies four weeks, and still further encourages the accused.
His fate really turned on the answers from these churches;
and, foreseeing this, Calvin took due measures to forewarn
them. In each case the reply was to the same effect: all
confided in the wisdom of the Genevan Council to put a
stop to heresy, while none hinted at the means. Rejecting
Calvin's plea that execution should be "by the sword,"
the Council ordained death by fire, so conforming to the
old imperial law."
The sentence was drawn out at great length on the 26th
of October. Servetus did not know it till the next day,
Friday, two hours before the execution, when for a moment
he was completely broken down, as Calvin tauntingly re-
tion, disturbance of public order and peace, rebellion, disobedience to ordi-
nances against heresy, and breaking out of the royal prison.'
1)
1 Established by the emperor Frederick II. in 1243 (Mansi, vol. xxiii.,
p. 589: ut vivi in conspectu hominum comburantur).
HIS MARTYRDOM: ITS MOTIVE.
“;
43
ports. On a rising ground near the lake, a little eastward
from the city, he was chained to a stake; and (the account
in "Sandius" says) for more than two hours, while stifling
in the fumes of straw and brimstone, suffered the torture
of a fire of "green oak fagots with the leaves still on," the
wind blowing the flame so that it would only scorch, not
kill, till the crowd, in horror, heaped the fuel closer. His
last cry was, "Jesus, Son of the Eternal God, have mercy
on me!" Farel's retort was,
"Call rather on the Eternal
Son of God!" "I know well that for this thing I must
die," Servetus had written not long before; "but not for
that does my heart fail me, that I may be a disciple like
the Master."2
To modern feeling this "ferocious pedantry," as Saisset
calls it, seems as idle as it was merciless. But in truth,
the entire process of thought for which Servetus suffered
is contained in it. If we look through the whole long
record of his cross-questioning, or the longer controversy
that went before, we find in it the one position on which
he never varies. He will never admit the transcendental
fiction of hypostases, or quasi-personalities, to represent
the agency of the Eternal Word or the Holy Spirit in
man's redemption. In this one thing he departs furthest
from the thought of his own day, and approaches nearest
to ours. His theology is, in the strictest meaning of the
term, "Christocentric." As Tollin phrases it, "From first
to last he asserts Jesus Christ-the personal, historic, indi-
vidual man-to be God throughout (durch und durch), and
always holds fast to that belief." It is Scriptural, in the
sense that every point of it rests on the exactest exposition
1 Supposed to have come from Socinus through his grandson Andreas
Wiszowaty (Wissowatius).
2 The words were copied by Saisset from the Latin in Servetus's hand-
writing.
44
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
of the Bible phrase, by a rule of interpretation he has
honestly adopted, in full accord with Melanchthon's earliest
and most widely accepted work.
If now, upon a general view, we try to see what was
the actual contribution Servetus made to the religious
thought of his day, we shall find it to be something like
the following. First is his rejection of the purely meta-
physical or scholastic Trinity, with his supreme exaltation
of Christ, in which he approaches much more nearly the
"new orthodoxy" than either the Unitarian criticism or
the philosophic rationalism of our day. Next in impor-
tance is his vigorous assertion of a present salvation through
Christ, as opposed to the formal and feeble "expectancy
into which the living gospel of the New Testament had
been dwarfed by Melanchthon; together with the vindica-
tion of that gospel from the restraint of the Mosaic Law.
Next is his repudiation of infant baptism, which he attacks
with a scornful vehemence quite unintelligible to us, till we
see how to his mind it carried with it the theory of sacra-
mental efficacy that made the evil power of sacerdotalism,
under the assumption of a birth-curse, to be removed only
by magic spells or "sorcery." It is in this connection that
he calls Calvin "a thief and a robber," as bringing souls
into the fold "not through the Door, but by another way";
and recommends to him the following prayer: "Most mer-
ciful Jesus, Son of God, who with such token of love didst
take little children in thine arms and bless them: bless
now, and by the hand of thy power guide, these little
ones, that by faith in thee they may be sharers of thy
heavenly kingdom. O most gentle Jesus, Son of God,
who from birth wast wholly free from guilt, grant that
without guile we may abide in the simplicity of these in-
fants, that the kingdom of heaven, which thou hast de-
THE DOCTRINE OF SERVETUS.
45
clared to belong to such, may so by thy favor be kept for
us; and by thy boundless mercy may they, made humble
in spirit, be gathered into it!" (Ep. xvi.) Surely, these
are not the words of one who, as has been said, in rejecting
the baptism of infants, left them to eternal death!
(( un-
Regarding the nature of absolute Deity, we have seen
that Servetus holds it to be, in the phrase of our day,
knowable." His opinion on that matter is interpreted as
"the higher pantheism" of the Neo-Platonists, of Spinoza,
Schleiermacher, and Emerson. His later language on mat-
ters of religious speculation is increasingly mystical, as it
has been with very many of native religious genius, and
as it notably was with St. Augustine. In constructing a
rational Christianity, however, whose mysteries are devel-
oped from the data of metaphysics, he is the forerunner
not of the modern mystics, but (says Saisset) of the philo-
sophical schools of Kant, Schelling, Hegel, and Schleier-
macher. 1
La
In respect to the ultimate destiny of man, Servetus
implies, if he does not positively assert, a universal redemp-
tion through purgatorial flame, purifying, not avenging.
"Place, time, and motion shall cease when sky and earth
are passed away; after the resurrection we shall dwell in
the Divine Idea alone" (Ep. xvii.). Last, and from the
human point of view most significant of all, is his vigorous
assertion of moral liberty: "By such assertions to argue
the will enslaved is as if you were to say, I cannot fly:
therefore my will is in bondage." In keeping with this is
his estimate of good works and his doctrine of salvation:
1 See two articles in the "Revue des deux Mondes" of 1848, vol. i., pp.
585, 817. "These articles," writes Mr. Gordon, are superseded by Pelayo's
masterly analysis of Servetus as a' pantheistic' thinker in 'Los Heterodoxos
Españoles,' vol. ii."
"
46
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. II.
"In the gospel, to save is to make whole; that is, to heal
one who is sick. . . Good works avail when they are
naturally good: they are even of service to those who are
justified already." All this was sorely against the mind of
the Reformers, and doubtless weighed in the scale against.
him. But thus it was, says the Lutheran Tollin, that "he
won for the Lutherans their doctrine of liberty against the
rigid Predestination of Calvin, which he attacks with his
keenest weapons." The pantheism he was charged with
might, it is true, seem to swallow up all free will in man.
But, as he held it himself, the life of God in the soul neces-
sarily implies free volition: "Where the Spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty."
1
By diligent search among his writings, a list was made
of thirty-eight charges, or counts of heresy. Some of these
turn on terms or phrases of pure metaphysics-essence,
substance, person (hypostasis), and the like-which have
little or no clear meaning to the common mind; some on
matters of gratuitous offense, as when he compares the
popular trinity to a three-headed Cerberus or the monster
Geryon, or says the Trinitarians are logically atheists, or
calls the rite of baptism "sorcery." Some are affronts or
offenses purely personal.
In the final summing up are
given these four: "Scandals and troubles in the churches,
lasting now these four-and-twenty years; blasphemies
against God; infesting the world with heresies; calumnies
against the leading Reformers, especially Calvin." The
grounds of these have been sufficiently shown already.
The real motive of his condemnation was a sort of terror
that came upon the Protestant world, lest its great work
1 It is in exposition of his theory of the Spirit working within us that he
introduces his famous illustration, or discovery, of the pulmonary circulation-
of the blood ("Restitutio," pp. 169-174). Perhaps this was what made his
enemics say that he had reduced the Holy Ghost to air!
}
7
ESTIMATE OF SERVETUS.
47
should be undone. Not heresy as opinion, but the propa-
gation of heresy, was the crime of which Servetus was
found guilty.
As to the guilt of that, no doubt the minds
of his judges were stirred by memories, less than thirty
years old, of revolutionary disorders, Anabaptist and
Antinomian, that went wild through all Germany. What
the Reformation just then needed, as they might well
think, was not so much liberty of thinking, as concert of
action. Mere liberty of thinking they might well dread.
There still lay before it a century of struggle, always ob-
stinate and often desperate, to save its very life. Servetus.
had the faults, along with the fine chivalrous quality, of a
free fighter in a deadly field. Mere freedom of specula-
tion, like his, runs out fast to individualism, to infinite sub-
division, to moral weakness and decay.
1
Servetus did, perhaps could do, no one great construct-
ive work. That "Calvinism saved Europe" is a verdict.
cited with approval by the most advanced liberalism of
our day. This is a testimony, not to the truth of Calvin's
creed, but to the rigor of his administration. Protestant-
ism, to do its work in the world, had first of all to take
the form of a strong executive force, inexorable, uncom-
promising, able to meet the adversary on his own ground.
The relentless theocracy of Geneva, the rigid Presbyterian-
ism that John Knox carried thence to Scotland, the mili-
tary temper of the Netherlands under the sternest creed
of Calvinism, the sober valor that founded a Puritan com-
monwealth in England and America-these made its dom-
inating and fighting force. Servetus came with a light
heart" across its path, and was crushed. His martyrdom
was its one chief crime against the free conscience it had
invoked. The single motive we can easily understand
or pardon in that crime is the genuine alarm his prosecu-
1 By John Morley, in the "Nineteenth Century" for February, 1892.
48
[CHAP. II.
THE UNITARIANS.
1
tors betray, lest by forcing their hard-won liberties forward
into fresh fields of controversy they should risk the whole.
The error which looked to them so flagrant they hoped to
burn away in his funeral pile. But his truth is saved for
us by that very fire, which tries every man's work of what
sort it is. For, without that baleful light, it would doubt-
less have perished with him.
<
1
}
+
CHAPTER III.
SOCINUS.
AMONG the Italian free inquirers who sought refuge in
Switzerland from dread of the Roman Inquisition, we find
the name of Lælius Socinus. He had been conspicuous
(it is said) in a society or club formed in 1546 of about
forty members, who were accustomed to meet in Vicenza,
to discuss questions growing out of the new Reform, in-
cluding the church doctrine of the Trinity. This was the
same year when Servetus opened his correspondence with
Calvin; and his doctrine had already (1539), as we see in
Melanchthon's correspondence, been reported as danger-
ously current in northern Italy. What with him had been
a motive of exalted religious mysticism became with these
young men a topic of scholarly criticism and rational in-
quiry. The society, if it ever had a formal existence, was
soon dispersed. Its secret ramifications were traced. The
inquisitorial police were set on all sides to thế task of up-
rooting its feeble growth. In Venice it was thought to
suppress the rising heresy by drowning in the sea. We
are told' how the victims were taken out by night in boat-
loads, the boats being connected two-and-two by a plank
laid across, upon which the condemned were placed; then,
the boats being pulled suddenly apart, they were plunged
into the water, just gasping a prayer to Christ as the waves
of the Adriatic closed over them. The more fortunate
found safety in exile. Lælius, with some of his com-
1 By Cantù, also by Ranke.
S
G
49
50
[CHAP. III.
THE UNITARIANS.
panions, escaped to Switzerland in 1547; and here, after
a year or two of travel, he found a home, usually in
Zurich, for most of his remaining years, till his death, in
1562.1
(C
CC
The family of Socinus (Sossini) was eminent in Siena,
and was allied by marriage with several houses of rank,
notably that of Piccolomini. Their family record, as given
by Cantù, preserves more than two hundred names. The
father of Lælius, Mariano, had been "captain of the peo-
ple," lecturer on jurisprudence in two or three universities,
and ambassador to Florence and to the pope.
An anec-
dote of his youth is that, being reproved for more than
once neglecting a college exercise, he answered simply,
I have married a wife." 'Well," said the professor,
"Socrates was married too." "Ah, but," replied the stu-
dent, "Xanthippe was a scold, and I dare say ugly at that;
while my wife is both beautiful and sweet-tempered."
Lælius was last but one in a family of twelve children; and
would seem to have inherited his mother's serious loveli-
ness of disposition, with a clear and sagacious understand-
ing that led him, in later life, "to scent out as many errors
in theology as he lived years.' As student of jurispru-
dence, he "sought its true source in the Divine fountains"
of Scripture, and was early drawn into those questions of
the Reformed theology which then attracted all the boldest
minds of the day. When (to copy the words of Camera-
rius) "he left a home rich in wealth and dignity," to become
A
(C
1 Mr. Gordon, in the Encyclopædia Britannica, as the result of later in-
vestigations, treats the whole story of his flight, with the attending circum-
stances, as a myth"; and relates that his attention was called to topics of
reform by Camillo Renato, a Sicilian, who is described as a sort of Catholic
Quaker.
{.
1
2 The phrase used in the Life by Samuel Przypkowski (-covius), one of
the “Polish Brethren," whose biography of the Socini, uncle and nephew,
is the earliest and most authentic source for our scanty knowledge of them.
LELIUS SOCINUS.
5 I
(adds Maier)" an exile for his faith in Christ," he was not
quite twenty-two.¹
(C
His candid intelligence, with the confiding sweetness
of manner native to him, drew forth an almost unvarying
tribute of personal affection from the leading German and
Swiss Reformers, very rare in that day of acrimonious dis-
putation. Bullinger, the wise and generally broad-hearted
successor of Zwingli as pastor of Zurich, was his warm
friend from first to last. Melanchthon wrote of him to
Maximilian of Austria, afterwards emperor: "His diligence
and fidelity are such that he might well serve an illustrious
sovereign in embassies and in many other affairs;" adding
that, by the reading of prophets and apostles, he has been
"brought to worship of the true God and all offices of
piety, and has begun the study of Hebrew with a burning
zeal for sacred learning." Furthermore," writes Bullin-
ger, "he is clear-eyed (prudens) and active, worthy whether
to teach in public or to serve some prince in high matters
of state."
"He is a man," adds Auerbach, “most accom-
plished in every sort of merit; most dear to me, and my
best of comrades" (fautor). Maffinski, one of the group
of Polish gentlemen whom he met as fellow-students in
Germany, reports of him in 1550: "I am ever so much
(oppido quam) delighted with his gracious company. I
honor his upright character, his frankness in speaking hist
mind, with his learning and purity of life. Not only I but
everybody here ioves him and makes much of him.
word, there is not a man in Wittenberg who does not seek
and prize his friendship." His scholar friends would speak
of him, playfully, by the title of Cicero's dialogue on
Friendship, as "Lælius, sive de Amicitia."
In a
>
1 These citations, with those which immediately follow, are copied from
"Die Protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Fausto Socin," by F. Trechsel, a
pastor near Berne, who has given, largely from manuscript sources, our only
detailed portraiture of the man.
52
[CHAP. III.
THE UNITARIANS.
Almost the only discordant note in this singular har-
mony of praise appears to be from the uneasy jealousy of
two of his own countrymen-Celso Martinengo, who had
been stung by some freedom in a young Italian, an asso-
ciate of Lælius, and that acrid busybody, Peter Paul Ver-
gerio. These two convey to Bullinger their "grave sus-
picion of him, that he favors the opinion of Arius, Servetus,
and the Anabaptists, and does not acknowledge or sincerely
profess adoration of the holy Trinity." Calvin, too, with
whom he has been on terms of friendly communication,
writes to him in 1552: "I am very sorry that the generous
intelligence which the Lord has bestowed on you should
busy itself vainly upon matters of no account." He adds
the warning, which some have taken as a threat: "Unless
you quickly cure this itch of questioning, it is to be feared
that you will bring upon yourself heavy sufferings." It is
to the credit of both, that this sharp hint did not sever the
good-will between them; and that, in spite of yet graver
differences, the good offices of Bullinger kept them friends
to the end.
B
The story of his life for the fifteen years after leaving.
Italy is easiest told by marking it in three portions, divided
by two visits to his native land. Speaking generally, he is
to be known in the first of these as the eager and restless
inquirer; in the second, as the courteous and candid dis-
putant; in the last, as the recluse student and thinker, with
a probable tendency to lines of more radical speculation.
But he is never a man of clear positive thought, or an
active propagandist. Winning and ingenuous, he sought
and found friends in the several local circles of the Refor-
mation. He discusses with Calvin in Geneva the physical
difficulties involved in a resurrection of the body. He
takes part at Basel with Myconius, whose "Confession"
has brought a larger tolerance among the Reformers than
Jakarta
LELIUS SOCINUS.
53
the "Consensus" touching the Eucharist had succeeded in
getting accepted in Zurich. In 1550 he is a student with
Melanchthon at Wittenberg, an associate among the group
of young Polish gentlemen, who brought (it would seem) a
breath of freer inquiry along with their fresh out-door air
into the ancient precincts of university life. By their per-
suasion, perhaps, or moved by the wish to visit a field
where the Reformation itself was new," to break the
crust" (says Trechsel) that began to gather round it in its
old Saxon home, he went for a short stay to Poland, pass-
ing on his way through Vienna and Prague, those spots so
full of political and religious memories, and thence to the
great university town of Cracow. Returning in the autumn
of 1551, he found himself again at Zurich, warmly interested
in the affair of Bolsec, a French Protestant who had dared.
to dispute with Calvin his rigid doctrine of Predestination,
and so was in exile from Geneva. He engages, besides, in
earnest correspondence with a new friend, Walter, on the
true meaning of penitence, pardon, and the Divine decree.
Partly, perhaps, to shun the stringent air of controversy,
he set out in the following spring for a visit to Italy,
which extended to a nearly two years' stay. But he was
chiefly moved by the new hope that seemed to dawn there.
His native Siena had lately made itself independent, by
help of a French alliance. The power of the Inquisition
had just received a check, and for a time it looked as if a
new day of liberty might open to the old Italian republics.
We find him, again, at Padua, visiting his father in Bologna,
lingering through most of the following year at Siena. But
what seemed dawn had (says the historian) proved to be
only twilight: the day of freedom to the Italian republics
was past.
With whatever of disappointment, he was again
in Switzerland in January, at Geneva in the spring, of 1554.
Here the air was full of the agitation, still fresh, follow-
·
i
54
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
""
ing the death of Servetus six months before. Calvin's de-
fense of that act had led the way to new disputes. Lælius,
all whose sympathies ran the other way, was now drawn to
Calvin, it has been said, "by the attraction of opposites.
He did not, it is true, share the passionate resentment of
some of his countrymen, or break openly with Calvin. His
feeling on the subject was, however, well enough known.
He was charged with being the real author of a vigorous
pamphlet in French, published under the name of Martin
Bellie, which gathered up, said its critics, a mess (farrago)
of arguments from the ancient church and from modern
Reformers, to prove that spiritual error should be met only
by weapons of the Spirit: the secular power, it said, is not
competent to deal with heresy. There was no need to
defend or to attack the opinions of Servetus. His books
had been too thoroughly destroyed, was the complaint, for
any one to find out what they were.
It was a time fruitful of controversy.
So far as Lælius
proved himself a combatant at all, it was at this period of
his life. Early in 1554 he argues with his friend Bullinger
on 'Divine grace and the efficacy of sacraments: he will
hardly grant that the "seal" of God's promise can be an
act performed by man; his logic will not accept the mys-
tery which in the view of the Genevan school enshrines
the act. In this same year, again, the implacable tyranny
of Rome compelled the Protestant inhabitants of Locarno
to choose between their home and their faith.
It was
hard to say which were the more wretched, those who
abased themselves to forsake that faith and submit to the
contemptuous tolerance offered them, or those who for
the sake of it were driven homeless into the inclemency
of wintry and northern skies. A congregation formed ten
years before by Italian fugitives from the Inquisition had
been hospitably received in Zurich, whom the new exiles.
•
LÆLIUS SOCINUS.
55
now joined; and to them Ochino, lately back from Eng-
land, was appointed preacher. Lælius was soon on friendly
terms with him; and it was now that Martinengo and Ver-
gerio whispered their doubts of his soundness in the trini-
tarian faith. Again, the next year (1555) a discussion fol-
lowed between him and a friend named Wolf, respecting
the Trinity and the personality of the Holy Ghost. Here
it appeared, not that he had expressed denial of the doc-
trine, but that he would not pledge assent to any state-
ment of it that could not be put in the words of Scripture.
Bullinger, still true to his friend, succeeded in turning aside
the current of suspicion and ill-will that set against him,
and even soothed Calvin's irritable mood so far as the
person of Lælius was concerned. But from this time on
we hear no more of his engaging in controversy. He
kept his opinions more and more to himself. Whatever
shape he may have given them in his private writings,
they are to be gathered chiefly from the works of his
nephew, who regarded himself as his natural heir and liter-
ary executor.
My
Meanwhile, events were calling him once more into
Italy. In this year (1555) Siena had surrendered after a
long struggle, to be soon after turned over to the domina-
tion of Florence. The next year his father died at Bologna,
leaving the family estate in a condition that needed attend-
ing to. In the general danger and disturbance, powerful
friends were required to make the journey practicable. In
1558, after a friendly reception from Calvin in Geneva,
and fortified by letters from Melanchthon to Maximilian,
he went again by way of Austria into Poland, where he
passed six months among the now vigorous and influential
party of the Reformers. Letters from Maximilian and
from King Sigismund insured his personal safety, perhaps
under a diplomatic commission, during his short stay in
K
56
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
22.
Italy the following spring. But his correspondence had
brought the ill repute of heresy upon his father's house.
The family estate was confiscated to the Inquisition. Of
his brothers, some were cast into prison, while two, with
their nephew Faustus, then a youth of twenty, made their
escape into France. Lælius returned to Zurich in August,
to live a little longer there in poverty and seclusion,
cheered now and then by visits from his nephew (then a
student of law in Lyons), whom, it is likely, he made the
sharer of his more private thoughts. He died on the 14th
of May, 1562, at the age of thirty-seven. "Not one of
his many former friends," says Trechsel, "bade him good
cheer when he went home to the land of Vision-he
whose lot it had been to bear so heavy a burden here be-
low, seeing not and yet believing."
Faustus Socinus, to whom we may henceforth give the
family name he is known by in history, was now at the
age of twenty-three. He held the memory of his uncle
in peculiar love and veneration; and (it is likely), to pro-
tect his good name and take in charge his literary be-
quests, went at once, on learning his death, to Zurich.
Whether he gave up the hope of such a reformation as
they had looked forward to together, and seriously meant
to reconcile himself with Rome, is not clear. At all
events, he made friends, as Servetus had done, of those in
authority under Roman rule. He recovered something of
his inheritance, and was for twelve years a diligent, ser-
viceable, and valued official under Cosmo de' Medici,
Archduke of Florence, in service of his daughter Isabella.
He was a man of harder, firmer, and probably more
worldly temper than Lælius; the son of an elder brother,
Alexander, who died when he was yet a child not three
years old, so that he laments the loss of parents and the
lack of early instruction. Against this his biographer sets
4
FAUSTUS SOCINUS.
57
the advantage of having had no training in dogmatic theol-
ogy, and little of the school logic.
Till the age of twenty-three, his studies were chiefly of
letters and jurisprudence. Lælius had rather hinted than
taught his own opinions; and it was as a man of thirty-
five, after his twelve years' residence at court, that he took
the resolution once for all to devote his life to the study
and defense of truth (1574). The death of his patroness
Isabella, strangled by her husband, may have quickened
his resolve, though he withstood the generous urgency of
Francesco that he should remain in the archducal service;
his property, at all events, was secured to him so long as
his name should not be given out as the author of heretical
writings. He was cordially received at Basel, where he
passed three years in study. Being guided, as he frankly
declared, by the writings and hints of Lælius, he now
stood ready to declare and maintain his views. This he
did in a little treatise on the nature and office of Christ;
published without concealment, but without his name in
the title.
It is well here to make as clear as we can what was the
nature of the task, and what were its conditions, as they lay
before his mind at the date we have now reached (1578).
The younger Socinus has held in history the unenviable
reputation of being the leader in a theological movement
blankly if somewhat evasively rationalistic, which, so far as
it went, altered, if not destroyed, the very substance of the
Christian faith as this had hitherto been held.
It is cer-
tainly not true that he intended any such result. And it
is only by ignorance or misunderstanding that the Unita-
rian movement which has followed since his day has been
so persistently called by his name. The misunderstanding
has been alike unjust to him and to it.
To see what his thought really was, we must bear in
K
58
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
mind that the Reformation was now more than half a cent-
ury past its reaction from that radical revolt which was the
first response from the German people to Luther's sono-
rous appeal. It had had its own record of strifes and divi-
sions. It had attempted by blood and fire to suppress
heresies in its own fold. It had become crystallized in
sects. It had grown to be a recognized power in shaping
the policy of a great kingdom like England, and in main-
taining a revolt like that of Holland against the strongest
of military monarchies. As a political power, too, it had
secured terms of independence in the Peace of Augsburg
(1555), which lasted down to the great convulsion of the
Thirty Years' War. Meanwhile, its intellectual foundation
was as unsettled as ever. Theology, in the futile debates
of Flacius and Osiander, was beginning to wander in the
field of metaphysics. Practically, the Reformation at this
period exhibits itself as a moral force of prodigious energy,
which we see in such examples as the Huguenots of France
and in the heroic revolt of the Netherlands,' but distracted
and unorganized, except where compacted by the rigor
of Calvinism; while the Lutheran church and state were
almost neutral in the struggle on which its very life was
staked. The only appeal that could be taken, where the
party of Reform was so helplessly divided against itself,
was to the tribunal of reason-reason, that is to say, for-
tified and enlightened by a fresh critical study of the
Scriptures, the one recognized court of appeal.
The Italian Reformers had from the beginning shown a
certain logical or rationalizing temper, which made them
in a degree indifferent to the arguments that upheld the
more mystical dogmas of the German theologians. They
accepted the Reformation in more radical fashion, when
T
1 The great defense of Leyden was in the year before Socinus quitted Italy;
the massacre of St. Bartholomew was two years earlier.
THE TASK OF SOCINUS.
59
they accepted it at all. The supernaturalist theory of the
church, remarks Saisset, rests on the four main pillars, or
mysteries, of the Trinity, the Creation, the Incarnation,
and the Redemption. It was the last alone-the theory
of Redemption, with the ecclesiastical corruptions that had
grown into it-that made the point of attack to the earlier
Reformers. All the others they were equally and (as we
have seen) ostentatiously prompt to defend. In the martyr-
dom of Servetus they had testified, even passionately, that
heresy as to those points could find tolerance with them
no more than with the Inquisition itself. He had struck,
boldly but unskillfully, at the entire fabric, aiming to sub-
stitute for it a metaphysical structure of his own, which
embodied (as he held) the real sense of Scripture. What
might, perhaps, be done by studying still more critically
the whole system of dogma, and comparing it with the
word of revelation to be interpreted, this time, not in the
light of a traditional creed, which after all rested only on
a damaged church authority, but purely by the educated
common sense of critics?
In attempting so much as that, Socinus really opened
the way that led straight to the rationalism of a later day.
The process was inevitable, however unintended. And
with it must come a sure narrowing and sterilizing of re-
ligious thought; the drying up, perhaps, of some of the
purest fountains of the religious life. This result Socinus
could not possibly foresee. He was not, like Servetus, a
man of religious genius; but he was a man of clear con-
victions, and genuine courage of his convictions. Still
further, these convictions rested not, like the later ration-
alism, on postulates of physical or mental science, but on
what he accepted, with unquestioning reverence, as the
revealed Word of God. This we shall see in his unbending
contention against the rationalism of his day, as represented
60
[CHAP. III.
THE UNITARIANS.
by Francis David (see p. 64). He was a man truly relig-
ious in his habit of thought, capable, as we shall see, of a
patient, persistent, even heroic faith, such as belongs to a
genuine religious leader. If dry and literal criticism of
the sacred text were all, his service would not merit even
the dubious honor of having given rise to a new form of
heresy. Whether he was clearly conscious of what he
meant or not, he meant something more than this. Cal-
vinism, as he could plainly see, had come to be a power
in the world by building its religious theory into a scheme
of positive and invincible logic-invincible, if its premises
be once granted. These premises were found by a pre-
cise and rigid interpretation of Scripture. But what if
this interpretation were a mistaken one? What if the
church theory of the Divine nature, which Calvin asserted,
were no more sound than the church theory of human re-
demption, which Calvin riddled and disallowed? Might
not a better understanding of the Word open the way to
a doctrinal system equally clear, positive, self-consistent
with that of Calvin, about which the religious life should
organize itself with equal vigor, but more freely, more
humanely, more intelligently?
All this may not have been in the conscious thought of
Socinus when his thirty years' life-work lay before him;
but it may have lain in his mind vaguely and unshaped,
as a dream. It seems, at any rate, to be the proper clue
for tracing the main direction of that work, as we follow
it through its incidents and look back upon it as a whole.
It was not, properly, a work of speculation or of dogma,
like that of Servetus. It was a work of criticism and of
church construction. To see it in its proper bearings,
we must look back first to the defeated and paralyzed
condition of liberal theology in Switzerland, its home, in
the years since the trial and condemnation of Servetus.
THE SITUATION IN SWITZERLAND.
61
This condition is best presented to us in a series of Italian
names.
The ashes of Servetus, said Beza, had quickly begun to
stir. The echo of his name came back to Geneva from
beyond the mountains. Matteo Gribaldo, a jurist from
Padua, had been a member of the Italian congregation
there when Servetus was put to death; and he at once
drew upon himself the wrath of Calvin by his indignant
condemnation of that act. He further followed the lead of
the Spanish heretic into speculations on the Divine nature,
which he can conceive, he says, "not otherwise than as
two Gods, the one deriving his existence from the other."
This moves the scorn of Calvin, and we find the rude ad-
versary proscribed and in exile, till his death by plague in
1564.
The story of the eloquent preacher Bernard Ochino
we have already heard; and how his restless pursuit of
the flickering light of religious fancies scandalized his fel-
lows, and brought him, in 1564, to exile and death in far
Moravia.
George Blandrata, a Piedmontese physician, of vigorous
understanding and dominating temper, had fled in 1554
to Geneva from the menace of the Inquisition; but falling
here into controversy with Calvin, and into endless disput-
ings about the proper dignity of the Son, he withdrew first
to Zurich and afterwards to Poland, where we meet his
name a few years later.
Again, we find the name of Blandrata's associate, Paolo
Alziati, also a physician, a rude "campaigner" from Milan,
who about 1556 disputes in something the method of Ser-
vetus, asserting that the man Christ Jesus was the Word in
person, and that all of Christ, not his human nature only,
died upon the cross. He was afterwards active with Blan-
drata in Poland.
62
[CHAP. III.
THE UNITARIANS.
Last, Valentino Gentile, a Calabrian from near Naples,
young and hot-headed, was found (says Calvin) to be
"giving to drink dirty water from the Servetian puddle,"
holding, like Arius, that Christ was a subordinate deity,
the created Word clothed in flesh: the trinity of Calvin,
he said, really meant four gods. He was forced to recant,
to burn his own writings, and to take oath not to leave
the city without official permit. Tiring of the restraint,, he
escaped, to lead a wandering life in France, Poland, and
Moravia; was captured afterwards in Savoy, and sent to
Berne; and here, condemned for heresy and contempt of
law, he was beheaded on the 9th of September, 1566, at the
age of forty-six. With him expired, after thirteen years of
strife, the last echo of the controversy stirred by Servetus
in Switzerland.1
Meanwhile, from the year 1560, Blandrata had gained
great influence among the party of the Reformed in Po-
land. He carried this influence so far that, at a synod held
in 1562 at Pinczow, he brought their churches to decide
that "all disputes regarding the trinity, mediation, or in-
carnation should be abandoned; all expressions unknown
to the primitive church should be excluded; while the clergy
were to preach the pure Word of the gospel, unaltered by
human comment.” A proposed test, that those who main-
tained the subordination of the Son should be compelled
to resign their charge, was voted down, "whereby the anti-
trinitarian bias of the synod became evident; and a confes-
sion prepared by Blandrata in the very words of Scripture
seems to have been adopted by silent assent." (Wallace.)
In the following year (1563) Blandrata went by invita-
tion of Isabella, sister of the Polish king and mother of the
young prince John Sigismund, into Transylvania, to be-
come the court physician there. In this post he found
1 Cantù gives the names of thirty-five of these Italian exiles.
p
THE NAME " UNITARIAN,”
}}
63
large opportunity of guiding the course of the Reformation
in that valiant principality. He soon won to his view both
Isabella and her son, who till the end of his life was a
consistent champion of religious liberty. A still more im-
portant ally was the eloquent preacher of the Reformed
doctrine, Francis David, who had brought the seed of it
with him in 1551 from his studies in Wittenberg,¹ and,
with a singular repute for zeal and independence, had been
since 1556 pastor of the metropolitan church in the capi-
tal city, Kolozsvar (Klausenburg). By one account, he
had retired before a sharp opposition into Poland, whence
he returned with Blandrata. Together, their labors were
so effective that, within five years, the privileges they
contended for were officially sanctioned by a royal char-
ter, and those constitutional rights were defined under
which the Unitarian communion in Transylvania has con-
tinued to our day. The more detailed narrative of these
transactions, with their results, belongs to a later chapter.
Under the date 1568 the name "Unitarian" appears for
the first time as the recognized title of a religious body.
A decree had been passed by the diet at Torda in 1557, and
confirmed in 1563 by the estates of the realm, securing to
persons of all faiths the free exercise of their own worship.
'Besides this," says the Transylvanian historian Bod, "the
various religions formed a union together, [pledging them-
selves] that they would not on the ground of religion with
mutual hate trouble and persecute each other. From this
union they were called The United, or Unitarian; such,
namely, as might inhabit the kingdom by equal right with
'others of different faith, with whom they should make the
commonwealth united and one. The name was retained
by those who confessed the Father alone as the true and
1 Or, as another account has it, from Altorf in Bavaria, where a group of
Crypto-Socinians" is found as late as 1617 (Zeltner: Leipzig, 1729).
64
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
eternal [One], and was voluntarily adopted by them; while
those who asserted three persons in one essence were
contrariwise termed Trinitarian.” 1 The name occurs in
a narrative of David's controversy of this year (1568) with
Peter Melius; and it is first found (says Professor Boros)
as the recorded title of a legalized religion "in the first
article of a diet held at Léczfalva in October, 1600."
Within a few years the more rationalizing temper of
Francis David carried him beyond his associates so far as
to deny that "worship" of Christ, or prayer addressed to
him in person, ought to be allowed in the ritual of their
churches. This step the more politic Blandrata urgently
and at length bitterly opposed. The existence of their re-
ligious body, barely tolerated at best under political changes
that had come to pass, seemed to be at stake. Finding
David impossible to convince, he sent in 1578 to consult
the Swiss liberal leaders at Basel; and here Socinus, with
the fresh distinction of his essay upon the Trinity (which
Blandrata is said to have seen in manuscript), appeared
to be the man best fitted to make a last attempt. For
five months, accordingly, from November till the following
April, we find Socinus in Transylvania, under the same
roof with David, vainly endeavoring, by dint of argument,
to win him from his conviction.2 The dispute, after being
1 "Historia Hungarorum Ecclesiastica," bk. ii., ch. xvi., p. 413. Peter
Bod (1712-69) was a student three years at Leyden, and devoted twenty-
four years to this work. A very fine edition was published in Leyden in
1888. This history is very hostile to the Unitarians, and has numerous
defects and errors. The above passage is copied, with some variation, in the
Introduction to Rees's translation of the "Racovian Catechism (Long-
mans, London, 1818). The Uniti, of 1557, were not Unitarian.
2 Their respective arguments, as drawn up in eighteen propositions on
each side, are given in Wallace's "Antitrinitarian Biography" (vol. ii., pp.
248-255). The detailed statement and defense of Socinus may be found in
his Works (vol. ii., pp. 709-766). This little touch of personal feeling may
be worth recording: "As for my living in his [David's] house, this was no
gratuitous favor from him. In fact, I paid a very high board. This, it is
true, was afterwards repaid me by Blandrata; for he had invited me on these
terms, that he should be at all the expense of my journey and stay in Transyl-
vania" (p. 711).
65
debated (it is said) before a packed conference under dis-
torted testimony, was referred for final sentence to the
prince, Christopher Bathori; and by his order David was
cast into prison, where he died a few months after. The
cruel treatment resulting in his death was ascribed by his
friends to the vindictive temper of Socinus, who some years
later defended himself in a long letter addressed to the
Transylvanian clergy.
His defense may well be accepted. It was clearly
against his interest, remarks his biographer, granting ever
so cruel a temper in him, that David should appear in the
light of a martyr. Blandrata returned the following year to
Poland, where he fell into difficulties with his fellow-relig-
ionists, whom he was charged with betraying to the Jesuits;
and about ten years after these events, having (it would
seem) reconciled himself meanwhile with the Roman Church,
he was strangled by a nephew, impatient of his inheritance.
Socinus was now established in Cracow. The work for
which he is best and most honorably remembered was
done in the twenty-five years between his controversy
with Francis David and his death. The key to it is found
partly in the grateful memory his friends kept of him,
partly in the Latin folios that make the first two volumes
of the "Polish Brethren."1 Most of the argument and dis-
quisition contained in this obscure collection may be safely
neglected by the student of our day. We need not hope
to make these dry bones live. But there is a story of
tragic interest connected with them, which we shall have
to follow, in outline, a little further on.
SOCINUS IN POLAND.
His first step was to seek the good-will and win the
confidence of those congregations in Poland nearest him in.
faith. He would have united himself with them from the
start; but, obstinate in their Anabaptist tradition, they re-
(
1 Bibliotheca Fratrum l'olonorum," 8 vols. A supplementary volume
includes the Life of the Socini by Samuel Przypkowski.
66
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
fused him because he would not be rebaptized. In fact,
rejecting the church dogma of the Fall, he held the rite
itself to be a hurtful superstition. So Servetus had held;
and we find, a little later, that the practice had been gen-
erally given up by the Unitarians of Transylvania, who,
however, observe it strictly since, as the formal initiation
into their church-fellowship. Socinus remained true to
his co-religionists, notwithstanding; he stood to their sup-
port, promptly and ably, when their rights or their doc-
trines were attacked; and before long they received him
heartily into their communion on his own terms.
The first mischance that befell him here was when, about.
1583, his defense of religious liberty was misrepresented to
the King of Poland as an attack on royal authority. His
political opinions taught, or seemed to teach, the unlawful-
ness of all authority resting on force, and of capital punish-
ment in the repression of crime; and in this, says Bayle,
he seemed rather a monk in disguise, come to betray his
own people, than an exile for the cause of the truth. He
now retired for some years to a provincial town, where he
married the daughter of a country gentleman who gave
him hospitality; and here, in 1587, was born his only child,
a daughter, Agnes (his mother's name), whose descendants
hold a place of honor in the later story. In the same year
he fell into a grave sickness, aggravated through grief at
his wife's death; a little later, he was severely straitened in
his fortunes by loss of the income that had come to him
hitherto from his estate in Italy. The chief events we
meet in the later record are the following.
2
1.
1 It is through her son, Andreas Wiszowaty (Wissowatius), that we have
some of the earlier accounts of Lælius and others; a grandson, Andreas, was
preacher after the exile in Klausenburg, Transylvania; a granddaughter mar-
ried Samuel Przypkowski (several times cited), the most eloquent champion
of the plundered and banished Unitarians of Poland. (See the genealogy in
Bock, vol. iii., p. 686. See also p. 92, below.)
2 See above, pp. 56, 57. His property was sequestered by the Inquisition
in 1590.
THE LAST DAYS OF SOCINUS.
1
C
67
At a great conference held in 1588, at Brest on the
Lithuanian frontier, he appears by his victorious con-
tention to have established, once for all, his supremacy
as undisputed leader of opinion among his fellow-believers.
But the greater publicity now given to his name was soon
followed by the story of the griefs and persecutions of his
later years. In a letter addressed from Cracow, October 7,
1594, to a friend at Wittenberg, he thus relates a cow-
ardly attack made on him in the streets: "I was seized by
a trooper who shouted out that I was an Arian who had
led his father into misbelief, and smeared my face abomi-
nably with mud, threatening me at the same time with the
thrust of a musket." He got off by pitiful entreaty, but
was waylaid for hours after by a ruffian, who (he thinks)
would have shot him through with a bullet but for impa-
tience at the long waiting. The story of a later assault,
which brought his evil fortune to its extremity, is thus
told: "On Ascension day, in 1598, a mob of students,
under Jesuit instigation, thronged the streets of Cracow,
dragging violently along a man half naked, torn from his
sick-bed, amid the hootings of the crowd. His books,
papers, and manuscripts were plundered from him, and
burned upon the market-place. With a drawn sword over
his head, and death by fire threatened before his eyes, the
victim cried out, I retract nothing. What I was I am,
and by the grace of the Lord Jesus that I shall be till my
last breath. Do you what God permits!' This man was
Faustus Socinus, then fifty-nine years old.
His last words,
six years later, were: Weary and exhausted, not by life,
but by persecutions and hardships, I hasten with joy and
confident hope to the finishing of my course, which assures
me of rest from trouble and recompense of toil.'
1
))}
1 Here copied from an interesting and most instructive monograph entitled
Siebenbürgen" (Transylvania), by Professor Rath: Heidelberg, 1880.
(4
68
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
In person, says his biographer, Socinus was moderately
tall, with prominent forehead and fine eyes.
"He was ex-
tremely self-denying of indulgences, careful of his health
(which suffered from stone and colic), and in advanced years
was disabled by dimness of sight. In manner he was sim-
ple, without haughtiness or ostentation. Courteous and
attentive to his friends, his fault, if fault it were, was too
little self-regard. Shall we say that he had more of intel-
lect or of fire? We may best say, a naturally hasty temper
kept well in check, with great patience under ill treatment
and ingratitude, and great self-control. His meditation,
he thought, should not be on death, but rather on the life
to come. Many have tried, but I know not if any have
equaled him in virtue."
These are the words of one (a great-grandson by mar-
riage) who as a boy of twelve may probably have known
him in person, and who wrote of him within thirty years
after his death. If their tone is that of panegyric, as has
been said, at least they are words in praise of a man who
surely has not in general suffered from excess of praise.
In truth, the proper fame of Socinus has been obscured by
the somewhat narrow and dry positivism of his intellect.
He has nothing of the genius and passion that deepen the
tragic interest we find in the story of Servetus; little of the
emotional warmth or the mystical devoutness so familiar
in later examples of the Unitarian faith. We are rarely
moved or touched by anything in his style of thought, or
the arguments he clothes it in. Whatever he may receive
in the way of friendly sympathy will most likely be given
to the few heroic or tragical passages of his life. But for
more than two hundred years his name was that of an
acknowledged religious leader. It is our duty now to seek
in his writings the direction he gave so long to the opinions
of his successors. Most of these writings, indeed, are not
4
Jan
-
69
constructive or independent, but rather occasional and
polemic. Our interest in them is wholly as records and
way-marks in the history of opinion, not as containing a
doctrinal system of any present weight or value.
THE WRITINGS OF SOCINUS.
In examining them, we are first of all struck by the
childlike and almost bald directness of the assertion—not
argument-in which his opinions and expositions are set
forth. For Socinus held, says Neander, an even exagger-
ated supernaturalism; in his fundamental positions no play
whatever is allowed to human reason. It is as if they only
needed to be stated, to command assent. There is little or
no cumulative force; little or no expansion or enforcement
of fresh thought or learning; only the weight of simple
repetition, in a tone of entire good faith, such as sometimes
has the best possible effect in the assertion of moral axioms.
But theological propositions are not moral axioms; and
the effect, we must confess, is mostly weak. It is so, in a
marked degree, with an early argument on the authority of
Scripture—the only one of his writing that appears to have
been published in English. A still better example is his
exposition of the first chapter of John's Gospel, which runs
somewhat thus: "In the beginning" is at the opening of
the Christian dispensation; "the Word" is Christ, as (by a
sort of synecdoche) declarer of the word, or truth, of God;
"the Word was with God," as being known only to him
until the baptism of Jesus; it "was God"--which is here
not the name of a Person, but an attribute of power, author-
ity, and love; "the world was made by him "—that is, men
were by him created anew to good works; " and the world
knew him not" as the author of this new life.
Such a
style of exposition is as far apart from the philosophic in-
terpretation of our day as from the dogmatic interpretation
it was meant to displace. No wonder it has stood all these
years as a butt of angry contempt to the dogmatic theolo-
70
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
:
gian, an example of shallow incompetence to the educated
student of opinion.
Again, we have seen that Socinus held, just as positively,
to the worship of Christ as a Divine Person; and we natu-
rally look to see how his view differs from that of Servetus,
to whom Christ is the true God so far as he can be known
to men, and yet in the strictest sense a man. Socinus is
here curiously literal and rationalistic. Christ, he holds,
was (to quote the Apostle's phrase) "obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross; wherefore God hath given
him a name that is above every name," rewarding him (so to
speak) by an official divinity since his resurrection and ascen-
sion, commissioned with full power to bestow life and im-
mortality, while yet our own brother, who can feel with us.
Christ ascends and dwells in heaven, he says elsewhere
(p. 675), before he begins to fulfill his office upon earth.
It is thus, as a delegated representative, or official deity,
that we owe him homage, just as we should to a royal
envoy as representing the king's majesty.' This is what is
really meant by Thomas's exclamation, "My Lord and my
God!" And in this narrow sense, of an orthodoxy all his
own, he felicitates his fellow-believers on the prosperous
advance of their faith in the last thirty years, in spite of
bigoted obstructionists on one side and "semi-Judaizers"
(followers of David) on the other.
In his formal treatise on the Christian Religion he gives
us this fine ethical definition, that Christianity is "the
heavenly doctrine touching the way of eternal life," which
consists in obedience to the Divine law. This he still im-
proves upon in the abridgment which served as basis to
the "Racovian Catechism," by saying, simply, that it is
-
Sel
1 Mr. Gordon plausibly holds that this interpretation was the key suggested
by Lælius, and shows how readily it could be employed to justify the use of
orthodox phraseology in another than the orthodox sense.
THE DOCTRINE OF SOCINUS.
71
"the way set before us to eternal life.” And it is interest-
ing to hear him, in the breadth of this generous definition,
call upon all true Poles and Lithuanians "to unite [against
their spiritual tyrants] with those who are unjustly styled
Ebionites and Arians "-a counsel which Protestants of
that day were fatally slow to follow.
N
Socinus does not believe that human nature was changed
by the Fall: before it man was mortal, and men have been
naturally capable since of virtue, freewill, and religion. He
therefore finds the grounds of religion in human nature
itself, and not merely as a supernatural gift (p. 537). The
kind of satisfaction demanded by Calvin's theory of atone-
ment, he says, cannot be made. Still, man is by nature
both mortal and sinful; he needs regeneration, change of
heart, deliverance from the bondage of death: for he is not
of immortal essence; a future life is the direct and special
gift of God. That Divine gift is promised as the reward
of penitence, submission, and obedience; and it is to carry
this glad message that the Son of Man is sent, his own res-
urrection being our pledge of eternal life. The unfaithful,
on the other hand, do not suffer torment in hell hereafter;
they only lose their portion in the promise, and so "perish
everlastingly." These points of doctrine, with their truth
and their limitation, contain the substance of that belief
properly called Socinian.
This name has often been employed to cover all forms of
Unitarian belief. Thus Carlyle uses it, in disparagement,
to designate a theology so radically hostile to it as that
of James Martineau. Such celebrity may be said to have
been fairly earned by the singular influence of this system
in shaping the opinion of most disbelievers of the Trinity,
especially in England, during the century that followed
Socinus's death. But in truth there are, and have been
from the first, three distinct types of antitrinitarian opinion :
72
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. III.
namely, the Socinian, which has been briefly described
above; the Arian, which was held by many eminent divines
in the Church of England, and by most of the early Uni-
tarians in America; and the Sabellian, of which, in the
period we have now reviewed, Servetus is the best-known
type. If we regard their more recent affiliations, we may
say that the Socinian doctrine led most readily to the eight-
eenth-century Deism; that the Arian most easily grew into
the peculiar form of religious rationalism more prevalent
fifty years ago than now; and that the doctrine of Serve-
tus most naturally expands, under the critical science of our
time, into the highly poetic and imaginative symbolism so
characteristic of the present stage of religious speculation.
For the sake of a clear historical understanding of our
subject, as well as in justice to the great variety of minds
touched with the Unitarian opinion, it is important to keep
these distinctions in view. Probably no person now alive
is interested to defend the theory of Socinus, as such. Its
value to us is purely historical, as marking a particular stage
in the evolution of opinion. But it is more than a denomina-
tional concern, it is of human interest, to recognize whatever
was honest and of good report in one who has suffered so
great and unmerited obloquy-the man Socinus, of whom
an unfriendly biographer has said that "he so excelled in
the loftiness of his genius and the suavity of his disposi-
tion, such was the strength of his reasoning and the force
of his eloquence, so signal were the virtues which he dis-
played in the sight of all, so great were his natural endow-
ments and so exemplary was his life, that he appeared
formed (as it were) to capture the affections of mankind." 1
1 Rev. George Ashwell, "De Socino et Socinianismo" (Oxford, 1680),
quoted by Wallace.
CHAPTER IV.
THE POLISH BRETHREN.
THE name "Polish Brethren" is more commonly given
to a group of theologians, especially to seven whose writ-
ings, in ten Latin folios, make up the body of exposition
and defense of the Unitarian doctrine as held for about a
century in Poland, then its best-known refuge and home.
But it is also given-just as the name "Bohemian or
"Moravian" Brethren is given-to denote a religious com-
munity having its peculiar belief, its own history more or
less eventful, and its definite place in that larger move-
ment we call the Reformation. It is here used in the latter
}}
sense.¹
Poland, early in the period we are concerned with, was
one of the most brilliant and powerful monarchies of Europe.
Warsaw was "the Paris of the East." The university at
Cracow was "the daughter of the Sorbonne." . Coperni-
cus, its most illustrious name, a man ten years older than
Luther, whose mind reached out independently in mathe-
matics, astronomy, and economics, was the highest in the
lists of science at his day. There was a moment in our
history when it might even seem as if the firm resistance
of one man, John Zamoyski, to the election of Henry of
1 It is so used by our chief authority, Krasinski, "Historical Sketch of
the Reformation in Poland" (2 vols.), vol. i., p. 144. Count Krasinski was
a delegate to London from the short-lived Polish republic of 1831, and was
compelled by its overthrow to remain in England. His work, though col-
ored by prejudice against the Unitarian doctrine, is generous in spirit and of
high authority. It was written by its accomplished author in English.
73
74
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IV.
F
Valois as king would have put Poland in the front rank
of modern powers, with a clearer assertion of religious lib-
erty than was found anywhere else in Europe; for Poland
had never been closely bound up, like the nations farther
west, with the papal system. Just before the Reformation,
in 1500, it was almost equally divided between the Greek
and Latin churches. It made one of three great Slavic
populations, Bohemia lying on the west and Lithuania on
the east, nearly allied in blood, speech, and religious sym-
pathy. Its political constitution gave it a nobility of free-
holders, very numerous, excessively jealous of their political
equality, independent of king or priest, controlling at every
point the sovereign they had themselves chosen, calling
their state a ((
commonwealth" down to the time of its dis-
solution and decay, claiming their right of absolute free
choice as to the form of religion that should serve them
best.
J
Thus the land lay broadly open to the invasion of opin-
ion from every side. Its conquests in the cast included
provinces lying close to the heart of Russia. Towards the
Black Sea it touched the Tartar hordes, most ferocious of
pagans, and included a formidable population of Cossacks,
zealots for the Oriental faith. Along the Baltic it disputed
its frontier against Sweden and Prussia, and so was steadily
pressed by a strong Lutheran propaganda. On the south-
west, towards Hungary and Moravia, it was open to the
advance of still more radical opinion. It had accepted the
Waldensian doctrine in the thirteenth century; had fought
the Inquisition and heard the pope called Antichrist in the
fourteenth; had welcomed the doctrine of Wielif, and by
its delegates sided with John Huss at Constance, in the
fifteenth; had made in 1450 its proud declaration against
arbitrary power, that "we suffer no man to be imprisoned
but by law"; and at the diet of 1459 had considered a
P
THE REFORMATION IN POLAND.
75
plan of church reform outlined by twelve specific charges
of abuse against the hierarchy. Even in the time of her
deepest degeneracy, Poland never underwent the curse of
the Inquisition. Most of these indications, it is true, touch
only the ruling class, the "nobility" of freeholders. The
body of the people, here as elsewhere, were doubtless ig-
norant, servile, and superstitious-a class the Reformation
could never reach.
p
To come now to the period of our own story. In 1525
the Reformation was already a popular demand in Danzig
and in Thorn. In 1539 the diet declared complete liberty
of the press.
In 1548 came a colony of Bohemian Breth-
ren, already beginning to be known as Moravians, most
fervent and popular of Reformers, who, being harassed by
the priesthood, found quiet and hospitality at Thorn. The
next year a body of students, clamorous for greater free-
dom of instruction, being expelled from the University of
Cracow, went to Königsberg, to return presently as con-
firmed Protestants in faith. In 1555 was brought about a
religious union (confirmed by the Consensus of Sandomir
in 1570) of the Bohemian Brethren with the Genevan party
of Reformers, then strongest in Lithuania, under the lead of
John Laski, just returned from the "Strangers' Church"
in London,—the Lutherans holding sullenly and (as it later
proved) fatally aloof. In 1556 it was ordained that each
"noble" (landholder) should be free to adopt the form of
religion he might elect. Finally, in 1572, the advancing
wave of religious freedom reached its highest point in the
declaration at Cracow, then the capital, that Protestant and
Catholic held equal rights in the united kingdom of Poland
and Lithuania-one commonwealth, since the Act of Union
passed three years before.
We have seen already how many Unitarian Reformers,
hard pushed in Italy or in Switzerland, found hospitality
Jad
76
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IV.
in Poland. In 1546—the same year with the society at
Vicenza, where, by the usual account, Lælius Socinus first
appears there was formed in Cracow an association for
religious study and discussion. Without seeming to abjure
the Catholic faith, this group of inquirers developed great
freedom of opinion. Here the trinitarian dogma was first
attacked by a Friesland Anabaptist, Adam Pastor. We
find, soon after, a society of "Polish Brethren" of avowed
antitrinitarian doctrine, under a native leader, Goniondski,
having as early as 1565 "its synods, ministers, schools, and
a complete ecclesiastical organization." At a synod held
on Christmas of this year in Wengrow, this body brought
together "forty-seven ministers and eighteen eminent
noblemen, besides a great number of inferior personages.
. . . A letter of the Transylvanian churches was publicly
read, and many individuals of the first families joined on
that occasion the antitrinitarian churches. The synod re-
jected the baptism of infants, on the plea that it was neither
used by the primitive churches nor commanded by the
gospel; it was not, however, positively prohibited, but was
left to the conscience of individuals, recommending charity
and mutual forbearance." The following confession of
faith was published in 1574: "God has made the Christ
(i.c., the most perfect Prophet) the most sacred Priest, the
invincible King, by whom he has created the new world.
This new world is the new birth, which Christ has preached,
established, and effected. Christ has amended the old
order of things, and granted to his elect eternal life, that
they might, after God, believe in him. The Holy Spirit
is not God, but a gift, the fullness of which the Father has
bestowed upon his Son." The same confession forbids
oaths, lawsuits, or any form of persecution, reserving to
the church the right of closing its doors against unruly
members. The leader, Goniondski, maintained further
Ka
7
ANTITRINITARIAN CONFESSION IN POLAND. 77
that a Christian should never bear arms, nor hold any
civil office, nor use a sword. In token of this opinion he
wore a wooden sword. He also, it is said, held to com-
plete non-resistance and community of goods. This relig-
ious body was commonly known as Anabaptist, and it is
sometimes called "the Lesser Church" of the Reformers,
being excluded from the larger Protestant League.
We notice that this movement, so far as it took co-
herent shape, was strictly national or local. It may have
had its first impulse from abroad. Of foreign names, we
hear those of Adam Pastor; of Lælius Socinus, who visited
Poland in 1551; of Ochino, banished in 1564; of Blan-
drata, whose influence has already been described. Except-
ing these, all the names that meet us are Polish. They
represent, too, the aristocratic-that is, the most distinctly
national-class in the kingdom. This circumstance ac-
counts at once for its early strength and for its later insta-
bility as an element in the national life. It was far too
exclusively, from the first, a movement of scholars and
critics; far too little a movement of the people. It per-
ished, in the end, at the hands of a pious mob acting as
agents of the popular, the official, and what assumed to
be the national, faith.
The confession cited above was published five years.
before the coming of Faustus Socinus, who did most to
organize the movement and has given it a name in history.
Its time of chief activity was during and just after the
twenty-five years of service he gave it till his death, in
1604; but this service availed only to keep it alive, as a
pretty vigorous school of theological opinion, through a
period while Protestantism itself was steadily declining in
Poland, under the crafty and most iniquitous oppression
soon to be described. The days of its best vigor, and of
its modest contribution to the general thought of that
78
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IV.
་
age, were the fifty years before the fatal blow it received
in 1638.
The date at which we are now arrived (1572) brings us
to a crisis in the political as well as religious history of
Poland. This crisis is very dramatic in the persons and
incidents it brings upon the scene, and it will be convenient
here to show the nature of it by a brief outline. More
than any other one thing, it served to bring Poland disas-
trously to the front on the broader stage of European
politics.
By a singular good fortune, the course of the Reforma-
tion hitherto—that is, from 1507 to 1572-coincided with
the most brilliant period of the Polish commonwealth,
under the two Sigismunds, father and son, who were the
last kings in direct line of descent from the ancient Jagello
stock. Though faithful Catholics, they were just and God-
fearing men, as jealously guarding religious freedom as
every other political right; rarely deceived into sanction-
ing, or seeming to sanction, acts of persecution such as
were elsewhere common; but, so far as disputes among
Protestants themselves were concerned, holding the scales
of justice even. Their wise policy made the "Dissenters'
Peace" (pax dissidentium) one great glory of free Poland.
Their most eminent counselor, John Zamoyski, himself a
Catholic, echoed their purpose when he said: "I would
give one half of my life if those who have abandoned the
Church of Rome should return willingly within its fold;
but I would rather give all my life than suffer any person
to be dragged into it by force."
This heroic line of Polish sovereigns originated thus.
Ladislas Jagello, Prince of Lithuania, a barbarian and a
pagan, had in 1386 accepted Christianity along with the
crown of Poland and the hand of the Princess Hedwig
(Jadwiga), only daughter of the last king. The two coun-
S
Bro
THE HOUSE OF JAGELLO.
79
tries were not made one, however, till 1569, the double
sovereignty having thus lasted not quite two hundred
years. This was the period of the growth, the conquests,
and the political glory of Poland. The kingdom, at the
time we have now in view, extended along the Black Sea
and the Baltic, reaching to the east almost as far as Mos-
cow, and included in its dependencies the Danubian prin-
cipalities, and on the west Moravia and Silesia. All the
liberal institutions of Poland-its advance in science and
letters, the founding of its chief universities, the protection
given to religious liberty-belong to the reigns of this
patriotic royal house. It was further closely associated,
and had allied itself by marriage, with the equally ancient
Lithuanian house of Radzivill, whose chiefs were almost
sovereign in their own principality, and were for three
generations leaders and champions of the Protestants: in
name, Calvinist or Genevan; in fact, including Unitarians
as well, who found in them steady protection of their
threatened Jiberties.
Such indications naturally stirred the jealousy of the
ruling church. Sigismund II. (Augustus) was sharply re-
buked for his favor to the Protestants by that fierce patron
of the Inquisition, the pope Paul IV. (1555-59), earlier
known as Cardinal Caraffa, who urged him to a bloody
suppression of them. But this he steadily refused. The
one stain of persecution upon his reign is the burning alive
of a poor girl, Dorothy Lazetska, in 1556, for the alleged
guilt of selling a consecrated wafer to the Jews, to be used
in their incantations; and this was brought about by forg-
ing his name to the warrant of execution. Poland, further-
more, never took part in the Council of Trent, or accepted
its body of decrees.
At the death of Sigismund Augustus were left his three
sisters, each closely connected with our story. Two were
80
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
*
AC
Catholics, extremely bigoted, and ruled by Jesuit influence :
to them were due, indirectly, the calamities of the reigns
that follow. The eldest, Catherine, Queen of Sweden, was
mother of a third Sigismund, whom we shall meet hereafter
as 'the Jesuit King" of Poland, whose long, weak, and
disastrous reign (1587–1632) brought about the downfall
of its freedom and prosperity. The Princess Anna, by a
political arrangement to be noticed presently (p. 84), was
acknowledged queen on her marriage with the fighting
prince of Transylvania, Stephen Bathori. A third sister,
Isabella, we shall better know, with her son, the heroic
John Sigismund, as the first royal Unitarian convert, and
as queen-mother in Transylvania.¹
Until the death of Sigismund Augustus, in 1572, the
king's "election" had been only the formal assent given by
the senate, or assembly of the greater nobles, to the succes-
sion of the eldest son. Sigismund himself had, in fact, been
so elected early in his father's reign, when a boy of ten.
His death without a son to succeed him led to radical
political changes, ultimately fatal to the commonwealth.
Religious parties, on whose jealousies and ambitions the
choice of a successor was likely to turn, were almost equally
divided. A bold and united course on the part of the
Protestants might seemingly have put the control per-
manently in their hands, and made Poland an equal ally
with England as first of Protestant powers.
Their petty
V
1 The following table will aid in keeping clearly in view the course of
events we are to follow. The reigns of Sigismund I. ("the Great," 1507–48)
and Sigismund II. ("Augustus," 1548-72) are followed by an interregnum
of two years.
Then succeed:
1574. HENRY OF VALOIS, son of Catherine de Medici.
1575-86. STEPHEN BATHORI, husband of Anna Jagello.
1587-1632. SIGISMUND III., "the Jesuit King," followed by two sons:
1632-48. LADISLAS IV. (See page 89, below.)
1648–68. JOHN CASIMIR, ex-Jesuit and cardinal, who abdicated in a speech
of great emotional eloquence, having witnessed the ruin of his country
in the interest of the church.
▸
1
芹
​POLISH DIET OF 1573.
((
81
disputes and mutual antipathies made this wise course im-
practicable. The Catholic party were quick to take advan-
tage of their disputes, weakening them by playing off one
against the other; while the exclusion of Unitarians by all
the rest from their league showed how vain a thing it was
to look for real equality in affairs of state. Their best hope
was in a Catholic leader, wise, large-hearted, and upright.
Such a leader was John Zamoyski, "the Great," a Polish
noble, now a little over thirty. Of Protestant birth, but
disgusted at the quarrels among the Protestants," he
became the leader of a reform within the Catholic Church,
and the foremost champion of political freedom. Void of
personal ambition, he now sought only to make the choice
of a king as popular as possible, and to confirm with it the
absolute security of equal religious rights.
Two errors are here charged to Zamoyski: that he
would not permit his own name to be presented as candi-
date for the vacant throne; and that, in trying to popular-
ize the election by providing that all ranks of nobles-that
is, all free citizens-should take part in it, he invited those
extraordinary scenes of turbulence which have made the
very name of the Polish diet an astonishment and a warn-
ing. The gathering was held in an open plain near War-
saw, purposely selected in a region hotly Catholic, and
easily reached by a mob of petty nobles. "There were
already at Warsaw," says an eye-witness, "many armed
gentlemen and many lords, accompanied by a great num-
ber of their friends or vassals, who had arrived from every
part of the kingdom. The plain where they had pitched
their tents, and where the diet was to take place, had all
the appearance of a camp. They were seen walking about
with long swords at their sides, and sometimes they
marched in troops, armed with pikes, muskets, arrows, and
javelins. Some of them, besides the armed men whom
G
Toda
82
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
they brought for their guard, had even cannon, and were
as if intrenched in their quarters. One might have said
that they were going to a battle rather than to a diet;
that it was an army for war, not a council of state; and that
they were met rather to conquer a foreign kingdom than
to dispose of their own. It looked quite possible that the
affair would be determined rather by force of arms than by
deliberation and votes."1 A large array of fully equipped
and mounted men was on the plain. In theory, any one of
the voting nobility, of at least a hundred thousand, might
stop the whole proceeding by insisting on his individual
vote. It is to their great credit that all passed off without
a single act of violence.
The candidate of the more rigid Catholics, an Austrian
prince, had suddenly died; and by what in the light of
history seems the strangest choice the election fell without
dispute upon Henry of Valois, younger brother of the
young Charles IX. of France. Polish fancy had been ap-
pealed to by the eloquent traveled dwarf, Krasowski, in
favor of the "fine gentleman" from the French court, the
youthful hero of Jarnac, who would surely bring with him
golden days. Grim rumors of the St. Bartholomew of the
year before, caught up with joy and boasting by the Jesuits,
might well give the Protestants pause; but they thought
to make all good by accepting Charles's assurance that this
was only a matter of local police, at worst an unhappy acci-
dent. They insisted, however, on the amplest pledges for
the security of French as well as of Polish Protestants. An
embassy of twelve nobles went to Paris in great glory,
"with coats of gold embroidery," says De Thou, "in grave
majesty, like a Roman senate, their bridle-reins studded
with silver, with gilded housings and costly decorations,
1 Gratiani, the papal envoy, in Krasinski, vol. ii., p. 24.
}
HENRY OF VALOIS.
83
attended by high-born youths in silken robes, carrying
blazing links a yard in length" (vol. ii., p. 286).
Henry, his mother's spoiled darling, lingered while he
could, both mother and son hoping that his brother's death
might give him a more shining crown in Paris. At length,
in February, 1574, he consented to be installed in Warsaw,
and to take the solemn pledge required. But his Jesuit
advisers, it was well known, had counseled him that "no
faith need be kept with heretics." Once, when he seemed
to hesitate in the course of the solemnity, a loud Protestant
voice was heard, "Swear, or you shall not be king!" And
the weak, dissolute boy did as he was bidden, intending
the lie. We should hardly know to what evil depth of
craft and perjury even Jesuit guile might descend if we
had not, at full length, the advice given by Gratiani, con-
science-keeper of the young king.¹
D
Before many days were past, the new reign was already
discredited by its levities and extravagances. Within four
months, weary of his exile, Henry heard gladly of his
brother's miserable death, and fled away from a night ban-
quet, close followed on horseback by his scandalized sub-
jects, who pursued him as far as the frontier. Not to
expose themselves a second time to like contumely, the
Protestants now secured the choice of a ruler (as they be-
lieved) of their own persuasion, under the political arrange-
ment before mentioned. A delegation of twelve, including
a single Catholic, was sent to confer with Stephen Bathori,
reigning prince of Transylvania, who accepted the crown
on the terms they offered-marriage with the elderly
1 In Krasinski, "Reformation in Poland" (vol. ii., pp. 35-38); also the
details of Jesuit methods, taken from a Polish Catholic writer, in the same
author's "
Religious History of the Slavonic Nations" (pp. 189-197), with
the elaborate instructions given to the Archbishop of Kioff for cajoling the
Russian clergy into the Roman Church (ibid., p. 201).
84
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
princess, Anna Jagello-leaving his own principality to his
brother Christopher.
Stephen was a man of intelligence and force, now some-
thing over forty, who by hard fighting had risen first to be
chief officer, and then successor, to the heroic John Sigis-
mund. His bride was nearly twenty years older, and a
strict Catholic. He was supposed to be a Protestant-
presumably, a Unitarian-of inferior rank, as she doubtless
made him feel. A father-confessor, smuggled in by the
one Catholic envoy, had gained his ear, and too easily per-
suaded him that he should find peace at home by joining
the Roman party. To the alarm of the other delegates,
Stephen appeared dutifully at mass the next morning after
accepting his new dignity. Like Henry of Navarre, eight-
een years later, he professed a politic change of creed-" a
crown was well worth a mass,"-happily, without change
of heart.¹ He steadily upheld the legal rights of the com-
munion he had publicly forsaken. He was one of the
heroic, that is to say, the fighting, kings. A horrible bor-
der war with Russia, forced on him by Ivan the Terrible,
made the particular field of his achievement. His larger
policy was shown in his dealing with the Cossacks of the
Dnieper (Zaporogian), who were of the Eastern faith;
whom he not only brought into order and subjection, but
organized under a discipline of arms that made them loyal
subjects and an effective guard of the frontier. The
hideous ruin brought about by an insolent wantonness that
turned them into most vindictive foes will meet us pres-
ently. A Latin epitaph on Stephen testifies to the ex-
traordinary veneration in which his name was held: "In
church more than priest, in state more than king, in justice
The
1 I follow here the Polish story, as told by Krasinski and others.
Transylvanian account makes Stephen a Catholic from the first; but at least
he held his faith very lightly.
Sund
SOCINUS IN POLAND: THE “SOCINIANS."
85
more than jurist, in battle more than soldier, in friendship
more than friend, in all things more than sage."
In this period we find the greatest activity among the
Unitarians of Poland in establishing their faith. Their
new leader, Faustus Socinus, had come to them in 1579.
Though received at first with distrust, he gained their com-
plete confidence, and at length complete ascendency, in a
long series of conferences for the fixing of their creed and
discipline. Since the position taken among them at Pinc-
zow, in 1562, when Blandrata had prevailed on them to
discard creed for Scripture, they had been commonly called
"Pinczovians." The town of Rakow (Racovia), founded
in 1569 by a generous noble, Sieninski, came to be their
chief headquarters, with chapel, school, printing-house,
and a university established in 1602; and from this they
were more widely known as the "Racovian" sect. But
the great influence of Socinus has given them the perma-
nent title "Socinian," by which alone they have a place
in history. Their story is an episode in the great political
tragedy now about to be displayed.
(C
At the death of Stephen Bathori, in 1587, religious par-
ties were again about equally divided. Each in due form
now chose its own candidate to the throne. Maximilian
of Austria was elected by a coalition between the papal
legate and the Lutherans; while Sigismund, crown-prince
of Sweden, son of Catherine Jagello, was chosen by the
national" party, prompted (it is said) by his aunt Anna,
the aged widow-queen. Threatening disorders were put
down by the strong, quick hand of Zamoyski, the general-
in-chief, who ended the contest by taking Maximilian pris-
oner after a sharp battle, and Sigismund was accepted
without dispute. He had been brought up nominally a
Lutheran, but really, under his mother's influence, as a
Catholic of the strictest creed, looking to receive the crown
1
86
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
1
of Poland in due course. When he succeeded later to that
of Sweden, his preference of Polish ways was so open and
offensive that in 1604 he was deposed from the northern
kingdom, and continued, what he prided himself on being,
the "Jesuit King" of Poland.
It is now that the name "Jesuit" begins to show its
malign and disastrous meaning in our story. As early as
1567, to stay the advance of religious liberty, an appeal
had been made for a missionary colony of that order in
Poland. This was strongly urged by Cardinal Hosen
(Hosius), a prelate of every ecclesiastical merit, but with
no one virtue of a true citizen or an honest man; the same
who counseled Henry of Valois to break his oath on the
cynical ground that "no faith is to be kept with heretics."
He soon succeeded in founding a Jesuit establishment,
fully equipped for the evil task of the eighty years that
followed.
The first grave warning of disaster was an armed and (it
is declared) constitutional revolt (Rokosh) in 1605, break-
ing out at Lublin, in the south, which seems not to have
been wholly suppressed for about three years. The war
against religious liberty was followed up in four several
ways. First were individual cases of suppression or per-
secution, sometimes most atrocious: in 1611, for example,
a village "syndic," or treasurer, a Unitarian, John Tysco-
witz, declining to swear by the crucifix and casting it to
the ground as an emblem of superstition, had his tongue
torn out, his hands and feet chopped off, and was then
burned at the stake, Sigismund, it is said, consenting to
this horror only under strong pressure from his queen.
Second, the populace were stirred to a fierce intolerance, so
that the Protestant strength was broken by a long series
of riots, in which Unitarians were the first to suffer—at
Cracow in 1598, at Lublin in 1627, at Rakow in 1638,
THE JESUIT POLICY.
and at length the horrors of 1660; but all religious freedom
eventually perished. Third, the stricter Protestant sects
were enticed into consent with the policy of crushing the
more liberal (as in the barbarous destruction at Rakow in
1638), till their own doom came, less than a century later,
in 1733.1 Fourth, the master-stroke of this policy was
achieved by taking in hand, through court influence and
all pretensions of superior skill, the training of the sons of
higher families, in which office they found their chief rivals
in some of the Unitarian schools.
87
This last was carried out with the peculiar subtlety and
skill known only, in its perfection, to Jesuit seminaries.
The best thing it did (as once remarked of it) was to
give the Polish nobility a fluent smattering of bad Latin—
an accomplishment of which they were very vain. The
method, well understood if not openly avowed, was to sap
the vigor of the young mind by keeping it through all its
best years in a state of pupilage. To do this the more
effectually, it forced upon the learner the study of a pre-
posterously difficult Latin grammar, compiled by a Spanish
monk, Alvar, so that the answer was always ready, in case
a parent should think a boy fit for some manlier task:
"At least let him stay till he has finished his grammar
lessons"-by which time the pinched and dwarfed intelli-
gence could be easily turned to a tool of mental tyranny.
The childish understanding, along with the ferocious pas-
sion, that astonish us in later Polish story, were the fit ripe
fruit of this stupid and wicked training.
Naturally, the first victims were the Unitarians, who
had not even the defense there might be in a united Prot-
estant opinion. Early in the reign of Sigismund III., in
1 Beza had urged that Unitarians should be suppressed by the sword,
after Calvin's righteous example in Geneva. Their final rejection from the
Polish Protestant League was in 1598.
88
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IV.
1594, Socinus had published the treatise on "Christ the
Saviour" (de Jesu Christo Servatore), by which his theology
is most distinctly known. Four years later was the brutal
assault upon him in his sick-bed, before described (p. 67).
In 1605, the year after his death, was published in Polish
the first form-probably in the main his own work—of the
"Racovian Catechism," which long had a certain fame as
the best exponent of Socinian theology.¹
The school at Rakow went on, with a fair amount of
well-earned popularity and a high repute for good learning.
Under its eminent head, John Crell, it won the title of
"the Sarmatian Athens." It "was frequented not only
by Socinian but also by Protestant and Catholic youths;
and it numbered about a thousand pupils," besides adding
to the prosperity of the district by its fame as a university
town. This continued for nearly forty years, its enemies
waiting the hour for its destruction. At length, in the
fatal year 1638, two of its students, for boyish mischief,
were seen to stone a wooden crucifix set up beside the
public street. The boys were duly checked and disciplined;
public apology was made, with the offer of any reasonable
expiation; but nothing could save the school. In spite of
generous remonstrance from Protestants, from members
of the Greek Church, and even from Catholics, "a decree
was passed, enjoining that the Unitarian church at Rakow
should be closed, the college broken up, the printing-house
demolished, the ministers and professors branded as infa-
mous, proscribed and banished from the state." The sen-
tence was so ruthlessly carried out that the aged Sieninski,
landlord of the territory and founder of the town, was
accused by his own son, greedy of the inheritance, and
1 An edition in Latin, in 1609, gave it wide currency. Attempts were
made in England to suppress it in 1614 and in 1651. A very handsome
English version, edited by Thomas Rees, with a valuable historical introduc-
tion, was published in London in 1818, by Longman & Co.
COSSACK REVOLT.
89
only "escaped the severity exercised against his fellow-
religionists by taking an oath that he was innocent of the
crime committed against a wooden cross by two school-
boys."
1
This atrocious act led to further consequences. Besides
its crushing direct injury, "it gave encouragement to the
provincial tribunals in every part of the kingdom to per-
secute with the utmost severity all who openly professed
antitrinitarian sentiments, and to prevent the unfortunate
exiles from Rakow from obtaining a secure and peaceable
asylum in other places." This, too, in the reign of the com-
paratively manly and just Ladislas, elder son of Sigismund.
Before the end of his reign came, the awful retribution
began an uprising of the Cossacks in 1647, led by
Hmelnitski,² a chief of extraordinary craft and power, whose
wife had been abducted and afterwards murdered in pure
wantonness by a Polish governor. This horrible revolt
desolated the entire south of Poland, bringing ruin and
destruction especially upon the Unitarian communities,
which were most numerous and prosperous there. This
misery was checked for a time by a treaty that promised
the Cossacks certain political rights, particularly that of
being represented in the senate by their ecclesiastical
chief, a dignitary of the Eastern Church. But when he
came to present himself, the Catholic senators by common
consent turned their backs and left the hall in a body, dis-
daining to sit with a schismatic. Stung by the insult, the
Cossacks broke into a revolt more terrible than before,
leading on a prodigious horde of Tartars as allies.
>>
1 How awful, let those who will see in the two wonderfully powerful and
The Deluge
impressive tales by Sienkiewicz, "With Fire and Sword” and
(Boston, Little, Brown & Co.). The author writes, apparently, from the
point of view of a fanatic Romanist: at least, that is the phase of feeling the
narrative reflects; but it exhibits, with terrible fidelity, the crimes of inso-
lence, lawlessness, and violence among the Polish nobility, which brought
the downfall of the commonwealth.
2 In Polish, Chmielnicki.
90
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IV.
In the midst of these horrors the younger son of Sigis-.
mund, John Casimir, came to the throne-a bigot, a ped-
ant, a cardinal, and a Jesuit, but brave to strike one mighty
blow at the invader. Beaten back from an awful siege,
and crushed in a terrible battle, the Cossacks threw them-
selves into the arms of their fellow-religionists of Russia.
By 1654 all the eastern half of Poland, including Lithuania,
was in the hands of those merciless assailants. Just then
the evil genius of John Casimir had prompted him to put
forth his claim to Sweden, renounced by his father fifty
years before; and in a few months his cousin Charles
Gustavus a warrior in temper, like his grandson Charles
XII.-held without dispute whatever of Poland Cossack,
Tartar, and Russian had spared. John Casimir, an exile in
Silesia, put himself under the special protection of the
Holy Virgin, vowing that, if restored to his kingdom, he
would right the wrongs of the peasants and "purify the
land of heresy."
Seasonably for the fulfillment of his oath, Charles Gus-
tavus, who was master of Poland in fact, now refused in
brute insolence to be made its king by law. His sword,
he said, was the only title he chose to hold it by. The
proud nobles who had accepted him made a confederacy
to restore their native prince. The Swedish troops, hard-
ened in the Thirty Years' War, had outraged the peasantry
by burning, plunder, massacre, and cutting off their cap-
tives' hands. A tempest of fanatical reaction set in. Lord
and serf joined hands to sweep the invader out of the land.
The Swedes, by help of the Protestant "Great Elector,"
broke (it is said) forever the strength of the Polish chivalry
in the fatal three days' battle at Warsaw. Then the elec-
tor changed sides. Sweden was forced to give way. Prus-
sia claimed and won its independence. Poland, exhausted
and dismembered, was in condition to call itself a sover-
J
DEATH OR EXILE (1658–60).
91
eign state once more. And in 1658 the time was come
for John Casimir to execute his vow.
The decree in which he did it is by far the most impor-
tant public document that has ever touched the destinies.
of the Unitarian body; and, as such, the substance of it
is copied here:1 "Although our law hath ever forbidden
the Arian sect to subsist and spread in our dominions, yet
since, by some fatal chance of the Commonwealth, the said
sect hath for no long time begun to expand as well within
our realm as in the grand duchy of Lithuania, denying the
fore-eternity of the Son of God; We therefore, reaffirming
and leaving in full rigor against them the statute [afore-
said], have ordained as follows: That if any such shall be
found, who shall have dared or shall attempt within our
said dominions to confess, propagate, or preach the afore-
said doctrine, or to protect and cherish it and its uphold-
ers, and shall be lawfully convicted of the same, every
such person shall be liable to be without delay capitally
punished by our magistrates, by their own authority,
under penalty of loss of office." A respite of three years
was granted for the sale of estates and collection of debts.
With superfluous cruelty, the three years' term was sud-
denly cut short, without notice, at the end of two years,
and those who held to their faith must leave at once,
mostly beggared and stripped. One of the fine traditions
of the Polish Brethren speaks of the noble plea made at
Cracow, in 1660, by Andrew Wiszowaty, grandson of So-
cinus's only child, who stood alone before the diet in de-
fense of the banished brotherhood. From an appeal made
p
1 It is said that there was doubt for a time whether the victims of it should
be Socinians or Jews; the Jews, however, though worse misbelievers, were
more profitable subjects. Besides, the great house of Radzivill, second in
the kingdom and chief protector of the Unitarians, had consented, under
the double tempest of invasion, to put Lithuania under protection of the
Swedes-a deadly affront to the king.
92
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
to the Great Elector by Samuel Przypkowski, while these
wrongs were still fresh and bleeding, the following words
are taken: "Upon the shore where we were cast beats a
most cruel tempest and storm of ills-continual wasting
by the enemy, continual assault of troops, frequent gather-
ing of armies, bitter hate and strifes between kings and
nobles, poverty of all ranks, a plague of debased coinage,
which drains the sap and very life-blood from the body of
the kingdom, filling it with dropsy, civil war, and the heap-
ing up of every evil, and, which is worst of all, no com-
fort of hope, but worse apprehension of the future. How
base and pitiful it is, that so many noble men and women,
widows and orphans, driven from their native land, many
of them stripped of wealth and great estates, who once
gave largely in charity to others, now need not others' help
alone, but their pity; and are in peril of new and even
worse persecution, since they no longer have the strength
to bear up under it. Tossed by so many waves and storms,
suffering every form of dread and horror, we are thrust off
from the hospitality even of the sand, yes, the bleak and
barren sand. Because we are beginning to till laboriously
these sterile and desert spots, and to restore the scorched
and broken ruins of the towns, what harm or loss shall we
be charged with bringing upon the regions to which we
have fled for refuge? Is it for this we have deserved
to be vexed with threats and edicts, or cast forth to the
insolent barbarity of the mob?"1
The exile of the Polish Brethren was even more cruel
than the tragedy which twenty-five years later took place,
on a far larger scale, in the expulsion of the Huguenots
from France. These had at least the sympathy and the
protection of a vast body of co-religionists, the hospitality
of neighboring England further prompted by commercial
1 " Apologia Afflicta Innocentia" (1666).
93
rivalry, or the welcome of many among them to the new
colonies of America; but, for our poor heretics, counted at
most by tens and not by hundreds of thousands, the nar-
row integrity of conscience, which was their one heroic
virtue, cut them off from the fellow-feeling of Catholic and
Protestant alike. Some found generous welcome over the
border, in Transylvania. Some, by the queen's bounty,
were settled in Silesia. Some sought refuge in Holland,
still famous for its splendid defense of religious independ-
ence; but here they were received churlishly and grudg-
ingly, out of old Anabaptist memories, and were pushed
back, as far as might be, to the less inhospitable regions
farther east. Their last appeal, which we have listened to,
gained them generous reception in Brandenburg and Prus-
sia; and here we may consider to have been the home of
such poor remnants as still clung to the old name and
brotherhood. In 1730 eleven families of them still sur-
vived. As late as 1838, in answer to a friendly letter of
inquiry, two old men-by name Morsztyn and Schlichting
-were reported as still living in castern Prussia, a remnant
of the old Socinians. With them, we may suppose, passed
away the last fragment of what, for one eventful century,
had borne honorable part in the brilliant commonwealth
of Poland.
LAST OF THE POLISH BRETHREN.
pl
Y
S
Bayle, writing about 1690, when the story of their exile
was still fresh, makes the following comment: "There are
few who are not persuaded that it [the Unitarian opinion]
has extended in obscurity, and spread more widely day
by day; and it is thought that, as things now are, Europe
would be soon surprised at finding itself Socinian if pow-
erful princes should embrace this heresy, or if they should
only enact that its profession should be relieved of the
temporal disabilities it labors under. This is the opinion.
of many persons; and the opinion perplexes and alarms
94
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
them." It is a comment natural to a freethinker, recoil-
ing from some recent horror of intolerance, like the revo-
cation of the Edict of Nantes. But, in itself, it is shallow
and improbable. The Unitarian doctrine is not a form
of thought, and the Socinians were not a body of men,
likely to make a deep impression upon a time of excessive
bigotry or of virulent controversy. These men were hon-
est, learned, pious, faithful to their light. They deserve
their share of honor-no small share. But their thin
rationalizing, not backed by any large intelligent criticism,
was far enough from meeting the deeper claims of the relig-
ious life. We have seen how their narrow interpretation,
their incorrigible pedantry, held them from the broader
ranges of the more vigorous life that lay within their
reach.
T
A conspicuous defeat has its reasons, which should be
sought in history. Socinus began by breaking rather vio-
lently with the bolder and equally pious rationalism of his
natural allies in Transylvania. His Polish adherents de-
feated the hope of religious union (if such a thing were
possible) by incessantly pressing the minute points of like-
ness, or points of difference, that lay between them and
more orthodox Reformers. It was the same to the last.
The pathetic and eloquent appeal of Przypkowski, just
quoted, is immediately followed by a formal argument to
show, not the nobility of a true religious freedom, but
that the Socinian creed was, after all, not so very heretical;
not nearly so heretical, in fact, as some with which it had
been confounded, particularly the "Judaizing" opinions.
of Francis David and his like. These are melancholy
weaknesses. But they are, as we recollect, the weaknesses
of the best and most intelligent men of their day. They
show how far it was from possible, then, that the first
principles of a scientific theology should be understood.
G
THE
RACOVIAN CATECHISM.”
RACOVIAN
95
The Polish Brethren must needs prove the accuracy of
their opinion, not content with simple honesty of thought.
The Socinian opinion as to controverted points of doc-
trine has been sufficiently shown elsewhere. Its master-
piece of exposition, the "Racovian Catechism," well de-
serves the reputation it gained. Wholly apart from the value
of its theology, the form of its argument gives it an educa-
tional value distinctly superior to that of any similar work
of the school to which it is nearest allied. Its bits of ex-
egesis, turning on the exact meaning of Scripture terms,
are often vivid and suggestive. Its treatment of practical
ethics, in the light of Bible precepts, is singularly wise and
clear: take, for example, the topic of Usury (p. 237), so
often treated by religionists with mere ignorant tirade;
while the breadth of plan and the logical method and com-
pleteness-beginning with the true value of the Scriptures,
and ending by an answer to the question, What is the In-
visible Church of Christ ?-make it, to this day, a treatise
well worth study. The well-taught, sober, rational, and
devout Unitarianism, which accepted this for a century or
more as its best manual of faith, held to it by a wise and
fortunate choice. It cannot be said to have been really
superseded until the coming in of that revolution in relig-
ious thought implied in what we call "the higher criticism"
of our own day.
The Socinians have been thus generously judged by
Archbishop Tillotson, an opponent of their theology, who
wrote, about 1690: "I must own that generally they are
a pattern of the fair way of disputing and of debating
matters of religion, without heat and unseemly reflections
upon their adversaries. They generally argue matters
with that temper and gravity, with that freedom from pas-
sion and transport, which becomes a serious and weighty
argument; and for the most part they reason closely and
D
Vlade
96
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNITARIANS.
clearly, with extraordinary guard and caution, with great
dexterity and decency, and yet with smartness and subtlety
enough, with a very gentle heat, and few hard words—
virtues to be praised wherever they are found: yea, even
in an enemy, and very worthy our imitation. In a word,
they are the strongest managers of a weak cause, and
which is ill-founded at the bottom, that perhaps ever yet
meddled with controversy. Insomuch that some of the
Protestant and the generality of the popish writers, and
even of the Jesuits themselves, who pretend to all the rea-
son and subtlety in the world, are in comparison of them
but mere scolds and bunglers. Upon the whole matter
they have but one, this great, defect, that they want a good
cause and truth on their side, which if they had, they
have reason and wit and temper to defend it.” ¹
1 Quoted by Krasinski, vol. ii., p. 407.
:
CHAPTER V.
Kada ga je
TRANSYLVANIA.
THE oldest existing group of Unitarian churches is that
in Transylvania, the extreme easterly portion of the Aus-
tro-Hungarian Empire. Its history as an organized body
dates from 1568, when the Unitarian belief was formally
recognized as one of the four legal "religions" of that
province the Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist),
and Unitarian, whose constitutional rights were reaffirmed
at Presburg in 1848. A royal charter, dated 1571, gave
to it corporate rights which no political changes have suc-
ceeded in annulling; though the attempt has been made,
often with excessive cruelty and injustice, here as else-
where. Its survival has been due partly to the nature
of the country and the circumstances of its history, but
chiefly to the singular qualities of the unconquerable race
of men that hold it. A few words must first be said, ac-
cordingly, of the land and people.¹
Transylvania is the blunt wedge of rugged country, in
outline not unlike a ram's head, abutting upon the old
frontier of Turkey, now Roumania. It covers some sixteen
thousand square miles, being not quite half as large as the
>>
1 In this sketch I avail myself of some recollections of a visit to Transyl-
vania in 1881, as delegate to the " Supreme Consistory" held at Klausenburg
(Kolozsvar). My chief authorities, besides, are the monograph of Professor
Rath," Siebenbürgen (Heidelberg, 1880); an historical sketch by Joszef
Ferencz, found in his "Kleiner Unitarier Spiegel" (Vienna, 1879); narra-
tives of English visitors, Paget, Tayler, Chalmers, and Gordon; that of A.
Coquerel fils, in the "Revue Politique et Littéraire
Revue Politique et Littéraire" (November, 1873);
a review by P. Hunfalvy of Alexis Jakab's "Life of Francis David" (Buda-
pest, 1880); and the personal aid kindly given me by my friends Prof. George
Boros, of Kolozsvar, and Mr. John Fretwell.
97
1
98
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
$
State of Maine. Its population is something over two
millions, extremely mixed and diverse: less than one third
are Hungarian, or Magyar; considerably more than half
are Roumanian or Wallach; the rest being made up of
Germans, Gypsies, Armenians, and Jews. It is guarded on
the north, east, and south by the great mountain masses
of the Carpathians, which rise steep from the vast levels.
that spread eastward into Asia. On the west it is sharply
divided from the broad Hungarian plain by a very abrupt
and rocky boundary of hills-the Király-hag, or "King's
Fence." It thus stands out boldly upon the map as a
great natural fortress or bastion. It was, in fact, for more
than a thousand years the chief bulwark of southeastern
Europe against invasions always threatening from the East.
In the fifteenth century the genius of its greatest national
hero, John Hunniades (Hunyadi János), seconded by the
half-fabulous exploits of Scanderbeg in Albania, seems
alone to have saved the German Empire from the fate of
Constantinople. And that great terror lasted into, and
more than a century beyond, the time of Luther.
The "
seven cardinal sins" of Transylvania, which have
greatly perplexed its history, are said to be its Three Na-
tions and its Four Religions. The four chartered religions
are, as we have seen, the Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and
Unitarian. The "three nations" are: (1) the Szeklers
("frontiersmen "), who also call themselves Attilans, claim-
ing to be descended from a portion of the vast troop of At-
tila the Hun, which fell back from the battle of Châlons in
451, and has held this land ever since; (2) those who in
distinction from the Szeklers are called Magyars, being of
the same race and tongue, but left, after a second Hunnish
invasion, early in the tenth century,¹ in possession of the
Da
1 Of which curious incidents are found in Scheffel's " "Ekkehart," with
his authorities in Pertz's "Monumenta Germanica," vol. ii., pp. 104-107.
M
MAGYARS, SAXONS, WALLACHS.
99
land to which they gave the name Hungary: they ac-
cepted Christianity under Duke Geisa, father of their king
St. Stephen, some time before the year 1000; (3) some-
thing over 200,000 Germans, here called Saxons, colonized
from lower Germany in the twelfth and thirteenth centu-
ries, to strengthen the defenses against invasion and fill up
great voids left by incessant attack and spoliation, espe-
cially the horrid Tartar inroad of 1241: these are repre-
sented as a sturdy and valiant people, of thrift somewhat
sordid and holdfast, hating change, Lutheran almost to a
Singularly true to the language and customs of
their forefathers, their very local costumes and popular
songs are said to be the same that may be found to-day
in their distant fatherland. They have given its German
name, Siebenbürgen (“Seven Fortresses "), to the land in
which they dwell in a certain seclusion, a sort of secular-
ized Covenanters. Some have joined the Unitarians, but
in doing it have had to renounce their native tongue as
well as creed. The impracticable Magyar is the vernacu-
lar of the Unitarian confession; and that church was itself
at one time known simply as "Hungarian."
man.
(C
These three nations" do not however include all, or
even half, the population of Transylvania. In fact, since
the political equality decreed by the Hungarian Diet in
1848, they have ceased practically to exist. A considera-
ble majority consists of Wallachians or Wallachs,—that is,
(C
Strangers," who call themselves "Roumans," who claim
to be descended from the Dacian colonists that retreated
before the Goths across the Danube in 272, and who cher-
ish dreams of a Daco-Roumanian sovereignty to lord it
some day over their old masters and oppressors the Hun-
gar ans. To the eye they make a picturesque but abject
peas untry, skilled only in the ruder tasks, addicted to ser-
vile superstitions, and guilty of horrible atrocities in several
Judge
w
100
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
CC
insurrections, the latest being that prompted by Austrian.
intrigues in 1848.¹ In religion they hold to a debased
form of the Eastern ritual, those who (under pressure from
Maria Theresa) acknowledge the pope as spiritual sover-
eign being of a "received" religion, while the rest remain
schismatic." Their priests, some of whom are men of
high intelligence, are greatly dreaded as secret agents of
Russian policy, thus further embittering and complicat-
ing old jealousies of race. And to this we may add that,
while the Magyars are nearly stationary and the Saxons
are dwindling in population, the Wallachs rapidly increase,
both by immigration and (spite of their extreme poverty)
by their kindly and easy-going family life.2
In numbers, then, those of Magyar blood and speech
are hardly more than one fourth of the inhabitants of Tran-
sylvania. But they are, as any one who has met an assem-
blage of them will quickly recognize, natural leaders and
rulers of men-sturdy, intelligent, grave, solid, masterful;
a race that could not fail to lead and command, as they
have done, among feebler or less resolute populations.
Recklessly brave, they stood in front of the great battle
that for a thousand years had to be fought for the security
of western Christendom. They might be nearly exter-
minated; again and again they have been cut down to a
mere fragment. Incessantly reduced in numbers, the race
has maintained itself by a resolute, haughty, and exclusive
temper, strikingly relieved against a frankness of manner
G
1 Of this the Hungarian novelist Jokai has given several powerful pictures,
the completest being in a Transylvanian romance, "Die nur einmal lieben,
and the most tragic in "Hungarian Sketches," the story entitled "The Bardy
Family" (English translation, Edinburgh, 1864).
2 In Paget's "Hungary and Transylvania" (London, 1839) are most
striking illustrations of the above. Mrs. Gerard's "Land beyond the For-
est" gives the best pictures we have of the Saxons and Wallachs, but her
brief chapter on the Unitarian Magyars is little better than an ignorant or
wanton libel. For the political relations of the races, see Szemere's
gary from 1848 to 1860" (Letters to Cobden), London, Bentley.
"Hun- '
>"
ì
THE SZEKLERS.
IOI
On occa-
and simple habit of life equally characteristic.
sion, that haughty temper can be driven to acts of ex-
treme cruelty and contempt, of which shocking examples
are told by friendly narrators.1 But their ordinary con-
duct towards dependent populations would seem to have
been magnanimous and kindly-especially as seen in their
almost romantic declaration of rights in 1848. Such out-
breaks of vengeance, or race-feud, as we have been told
of we may easily understand, and perhaps pardon, when
we remember our own dealings with Negroes, Indians, or
Chinese. The terrible uprising of the autumn of 1848-
when "Wallachs burned the women and spitted the chil-
dren of the Magyars, and these revenged themselves by
destroying the Wallachian villages from the very face of
the land "2-was stimulated by the base policy of Austria
working through the jealousy of Croatian Slavs; for the
rural aristocracy of the Szeklers, who were its special vic-
tims, made the backbone of the short-lived Republic of
that date.³ They accept, however, very heartily their
position in the double empire since 1867. They would,
we are told, die readily for Franz Jozsef, the King of Hun-
gary, while they might resist to the death his acts as Em-
peror of Austria. I was told more than once, gratefully,
of the tears shed by the Austrian empress at the death of
their patriot statesman Deák. We may expect to see
something of the same temper now described in their de-
fense of that particular form of belief which had come to
them as their own share in the great inheritance of the
Protestant Reformation. The story is worth the telling,
not simply for the historical importance of the movement
C
G
M
1 As in Paget, vol. ii., p. tog (of date 1523); Rath, p. 157 (of 1781).
2 Brace's "Hungary in 1851," p. 165.
3 Members of the consistory at Kolozsvar had been leaders in the revolu-
tion of 1848; and my most kind entertainer at Budapest, the historian Alexis
Jakab, had been an officer of Kossuth's cavalry in twenty-three engagements.
102
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. V.
& M
it describes, but because it shows the Unitarian doctrine
in an heroic or martyr attitude, which we have not often
so good cause to associate with it.
We have already seen, in the story of Socinus, how the
Unitarian opinion had gained a footing and a certain dom-
inance in Transylvania, partly through the agency of an
Italian physician, George Blandrata, who had come over
from Poland in 1563 at the summons of Queen Isabella,
and had won great influence upon her son, John Sigismund,
and the leaders of the Reformation there. We have seen
how the same work was carried still further forward by the
most eloquent preacher and first bishop of the Unitarian
body, Francis David; how this body, in 1568, obtained.
certain constitutional rights, which it has kept to this day;
and how, ten years later, Francis David was condemned
for innovation in doctrine, under a charge basely pressed
against him by Blandrata, and was cast into prison, where
he died in November, 1579. It is now necessary to set
these events, with something of their antecedents and re-
sults, in the clearer light of history.
1
The period with which this history has most to do covers
about one hundred and sixty years. It is defined by the
dates of two great battles at Mohács, in western Hungary,
which mark one the advance and the other the retreat of
the Turkish power. These dates are 1526 and 1687. At
the first, the Turks became masters of nearly all Hungary,
which they held under a sort of protectorate, with their
seat of power in Buda (now the older half of the modern
capital), which marks the western limit of their sway.
At
the second, having already been driven back by Sobieski,
the Polish hero-king, from the siege of Vienna, they suf-
fered an equally great defeat, by which they completely
(
1 The title "bishop" (püspök) is to be taken in its original sense as
pervisor" of an ecclesiastical district.
su-
A
103
lost their hold upon the upper valley of the Danube. The
same event that had made them masters of this region also
gave to Transylvania its century and a half of free political
life-free, except as it might appeal to either court, Chris-
tian or Moslem, against the other, and so be driven (as
Bishop Ferencz illustrates) like a tennis-ball between Con-
stantinople and Vienna.
T
At the battle in 1526 the young and rash Ludwig II.,¹
the last Jagello king of Hungary, had perished in a marsh.
His successor laid claim to Transylvania, but was resisted
by the Magyars as a stranger, who could not even take
his coronation oath in their own tongue. They chose, in-
stead, a typical chief of their own blood, John Zapolya,2
appealing to the Turks against the Germans. From this
time on we have a series of fourteen quasi-independent
sovereigns, now known as kings, oftener as princes, some-
times as voivodes, or governors-general under foreign rule.
This term of qualified independence, it will be noticed,
covers almost exactly what is called the " Reformation
period" in modern history.
The story of the Reformation in Transylvania begins
with John Zapolya. (1526–40). In 1529 a decree of
exile was pronounced against Catholics, probably as up-
holders of the Austrian policy against him. In the next
year Kronstadt, the chief "Saxon" city, declared for the
Lutheran faith; and this example was followed, ten years
later, by Klausenburg (Kolozsvar), the Magyar capital.
At this latter date (1540) Unitarians were already to be
found in Transylvanian churches, along with followers of
Luther and of Zwingli. Allying his name with the glory
REFORMATION IN TRANSYLVANIA.
Ad
1 Whom Carlyle calls the "skinless" (ohne Haut), from a physical delicacy.
2 Apparently he had been the leader in suppressing a horrible six months'
Slavic insurrection, which was horribly avenged, as related by Paget,
"Hun-
gary and Transylvania," vol. ii., p. 109.
104
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
1
of the elder reigning house, Zapolya married Isabella Ja-
gello, daughter of Sigismund the Great of Poland;¹ and
at his death, in 1540, she became regent to their infant
son, John Sigismund, who was proclaimed by the Magyar
nobles as prince, with Turkish support against Ferdinand
of Austria.2
It was Isabella who in 1563 invited from Poland the
well-known Unitarian propagandist, George Blandrata,
whom a Catholic writer describes as "that scoundrel doc-
tor, Blandrata of Saluzzo, chief of the Huguenot sect!"
Isabella appears to have steadily befriended the most radi-
cal leaders of the Reformation; and her counsels must
have done much to form the character of the young
prince, the one hero-sovereign of history who has frankly
borne the name of Unitarian. This unique position of
John Sigismund makes the more interesting the following
account of his person and character, taken from a report
addressed by a Catholic envoy to Cosmo, Duke of Flor-
ence: "His look is kind and friendly, out of blue eyes.
He is an accomplished cavalier, skilled with the lance, a
master of wrestling, fencing, the bow, and the lute. He
can express himself well in Latin, and speaks fluently
Italian, German, Polish, Hungarian, Wallach, with some
Greek and Turkish. Kind-hearted, mild-tempered, gen-
erous, high-spirited, shrewd, well-balanced, eager, brave,
valiant in war, he will be wherever danger is greatest; by
day and night in the saddle; so faithful in service that he
must be restrained from throwing himself away. He is
pious in disposition, earnest in the search for truth; slow
to inflict punishment of crimes; hates a hypocrite; is in
all respects virtuous and pure." 3
G
1 See above, pp. 83, 84.
2 At this time, according to Mr. Fretwell, was formed the League (virtually
a Protestant league) of the "three nations," Szekler, Magyar, and Saxon.
3 Rath, "Siebenbürgen," p. 136.
✩
105
The conspicuous glory of John Sigismund's reign was to
establish in 1568 a religious peace among the warring sects
on the basis of perfect liberty of conscience. Before his
death, three years later, at the age of thirty-two, he had
confirmed the charter of constitutional rights, by which
the "four religions" abide to-day. When once, as a boy
of twelve, he had been dethroned by an Austrian conspir-
acy, he was restored by Turkish help; and the same year
that gave the charter of religious freedom also renewed
and confirmed the Turkish alliance. It is likely that this
obligation of good-will, with dread of the Jesuits (who are
found in western Hungary as early as 1561), did something
to strengthen his hate of Christian bigotry, and his resolve
to compel equal justice among Christian sects.
The story of the Reformation in these bright early days,
so far as touches our present subject, is summed up in the
life of its one chief religious hero, witness, and martyr,
Francis David.¹ The capital city, Klausenburg, was at that
day almost equally divided among the "three nations."
David was himself, by the common account, of German
family, though using with equal fluency both Latin and
the Magyar speech, which then became dominant there;
his family name he spelled, in scholar's fashion, "Davidis
(= Davidson). He was born about 1510; and it was
probably the narrow means of his father, a shoemaker
by trade, that kept a man of his remarkable gifts from
a public career till so late in life; for it appears to have
been when he was already thirty-eight that he was sent
by his Catholic instructors-men certainly of singular lib-
erality to complete his college training by three years
at Wittenberg. Luther had been two years dead, and
JOHN SIGISMUND; FRANCIS DAVID.
2
}}
1 For many details of this account I am indebted to a biographical sketch
sent me by my friend and host, Prof. George Boros, of Kolozsvar, whose
manuscript may be found in the Harvard Divinity School library.
106
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. V.
it must have been Melanchthon's influence that held
David from plunging too hastily into the path of reform,
while his studies in Wittenberg would predispose him to
that course. After his return, in 1551, he served two
years in the modest post of a country schoolmaster or
curate. When his vocation as preacher became apparent,
he was of that liberal wing of the Catholic clergy who re-
solved, while remaining in their mother-church, to preach
only the truth of Christ as they might honestly find it in
the gospel. Coming to be well known as an effective
speaker to the learned and the people, to each in their
own tongue, he was in 1556 established as a metropolitan
preacher in Klausenburg. It is here, at the age of forty-
six, that his career properly begins.
He was already identified in the popular mind with the
Lutheran party, whether or not a seceder as yet from the
Church of Rome. With his growing repute as a pulpit
orator, he became more independent and bold in asserting
the claim of reason in religion. The German part of the
population was, as a rule, Lutheran; the Magyar, well in-
clined to take a step beyond, held the Genevan view. The
critical point just then was the doctrine of sacraments;
and with sore reluctance David found himself obliged to
part company with his former associates, on Luther's asser-
tion of the Real Presence in the Eucharist. Just here, too,
John Sigismund, now a youth under twenty, came forward
in support of the new advance. But the genius of the
people itself was a still more effectual aid than the prince's
favor. The Hungarians, as we have seen, were never
ardently loyal to Catholic ascendency. Besides, as they
themselves declare, the Magyar turn of thought is of
nearer kin to central Asia than to Greece or Germany.
It does not take kindly to such mysteries as trinity, atone-
ment, or the like. It likes to rationalize, they say, and
EDICT OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, 1568.
107
inclines easily to simpler forms of faith. Thus the Reform,
at its headquarters in Klausenburg, went steadily in the
direction taken by its most eloquent preacher. The Town
Council gave him, too, its official support. For some years
(1559-66) he labored chiefly in the work of education,
seeing clearly that the task he had begun must be given
soon to younger hands: thus we find him not only court
preacher, but head of what is at this day the most impor-
tant university of Transylvania. The influence of Blan-
drata and of the prince's mother, Isabella, worked mean-
while powerfully for the new and free theology he taught.
His final position seems to have been first distinctly taken
in 1566, in the course of a discussion he was led into with
one of the university professors, Peter Karolyi, who ex-
pounded the trinity in Melanchthon's sense. From this
time forth David's Unitarian conviction is openly declared
through pulpit and press, while "the attitude of Kolozsvar
and of all Transylvania is changed" with him.
Janga
The year 1568 carried his success and his personal em-
inence to their highest point. In January a royal edict.
confirmed by authority of the diet was published, of liber-
ality hitherto unknown in the religious world. It declared
absolute freedom of conscience and of speech; no preacher
should be subject to penalty from an ecclesiastical superior
for speaking his honest thought; no congregation should
be debarred from listening to the preacher of its choice;
no man should suffer civil penalty for his opinion, “since
faith is the gift of God, and faith comes by hearing, and
the hearing is of the Word of God." This law became the
substance of those constitutional liberties granted to the
'four religions," which have continued down to our day.
A little later, the name "Unitarian" was well recognized
as that of the now dominant faith-before this, known as
"the Klausenburg Confession "-which remained for more
108
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
than fifty years the prevailing type of the Reformed belief.
It is an honorable distinction that this first and only Uni-
tarian triumph in the policy of a sovereign state declared
not the supremacy of its own belief, but the equal liberty
of all.
Two months later was held a public debate, in Latin,
lasting ten days, at the residence and in presence of the
prince, who listened attentively to the proceedings. Five
disputants spoke on each side, David's chief opponent
being Peter Melius, a Calvinist "bishop" summoned from
Hungary, a zealous defender of the trinity.
"This was
the first great open controversy" between the parties; and,
in the opinion of those who listened, it resulted in "a com-
plete victory of the Unitarian doctrine." David carried
with him the full sympathy of "all the nobility assembled
there," as well as the enthusiastic support of his towns-
people. "The whole town was greatly stirred during the
time of the debate; but now, when they heard of the
result, their joy was boundless. The streets of Kolozsvar
were filled with hundreds and thousands of people, anx-
iously questioning one another of the latest news. Could
they have heard tidings more delightful than that their
pastor, long so greatly loved, from this time forth their
bishop, was to return that very day? The long-expected
carriage arrived at last, and was halted in the great open
square. Francis David, in order to make himself seen and
heard, got up on a large round stone which stood at a
corner of the street. 1 Here he began to preach the vic-
torious new doctrine of Unitarianism. The people broke
out in shouts, took him upon their shoulders, and carried
him to the Church of St. Michael in the midst of the town,
where he continued his address. This day the whole
Jedn
1 The great boulder is still kept in the church precincts as a proud me-
morial of this event.
DEATH OF JOHN SIGISMUND, 1571.
109
people of the town of Kolozsvar became Unitarian! The
example was followed by a large number of Transylvanian
towns, each of which carried with it the entire neighbor-
hood. At this time more than four hundred preachers [425
congregations] were Unitarian by profession. In thirteen
higher schools and colleges, besides, that doctrine was
taught by able professors, several of whom were refugees
from foreign lands."1
Another debate was held in October of the next year,
in Hungary, and in the Magyar tongue. It lasted six
days, and was attended by a large crowd, including the
prince, who often interposed with his own remarks. On
the last day, as the discussion seemed to grow personal
and futile, he closed it with these characteristic words:
"Being appointed by the grace of God prince of this land,
we have designed, according to our royal office, to care for
the souls of our subjects as well as for their bodies, that
they may grow in the truth and be free from antichristian
error. We wish, also, to show the falsehood of the name
Turks, by which we are called in foreign countries. But
we see that the party opposed make only indecisive and
evasive answers. If they desire a public discussion with
our preacher, Francis David, they may dispute when and
where they will in our own country. We shall always
cause our preacher to present himself, and they may come
freely, without harm. But now, since they go about the
truth, giving no direct reply, and since other public duties
call us back to Transylvania, we put an end to the debate."
John Sigismund lived to complete his work by the great
charter of religious freedom, announced in 1571, dying on
the 14th of May in that year, without an heir to his title.
1 From the account by Professor Boros. Among the refugees was James
Paleologus, a native Greek of Chios, who was burned for heresy at Rome in
1585. He sided ardently with Francis David in his discussion with Socinus.
I IO
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. V.
A change soon came in the fortunes of the Unitarian
Church. Two candidates for the vacant throne appeared:
Gaspar Bekes, of Wallachian blood but Unitarian in faith,
who was supported by the Szeklers; and Stephen Bathori,
best known for his great fighting quality. The latter was
victorious, by Turkish help, in a sharp battle; and Bekes
fled to Poland, his partisans suffering death or confisca-
tion of their estates.
Stephen Bathori is generally called a Catholic, though
he was understood to be a Protestant by the Poles when,
four years later, they elected him as their king. Probably
his religion was that of a soldier, disdainful of creeds,
choosing only on public grounds to ally himself with the
strongest. His four years' rule was upright and just, scru-
pulous to protect established rights. The Unitarian body,
though weakened by its great loss, seems during his time
to have had nothing in the acts of the government to com-
plain of. His own declaration was, Rex sum populorum,
non conscientiarum. "God," said he, has reserved to
himself three things: to create something out of nothing,
to know the future, and to rule the conscience."
His brother Christopher, who succeeded him from 1575
to 1581, was soon found to be more or less openly under
Jesuit control. His policy, we are told, was to weaken the
Protestants by fomenting dissensions among them. In
1579 he gave over to the Jesuits one of the chief Unita-
rians schools (that at Gyulafejervar); and "he only waited
the opportunity to give Unitarianism its death-blow."
The opportunity was offered in a difference that grew
into personal bitterness between its two most conspicuous.
leaders. This difference is said by one account to have
arisen as early as 1574 from some scandal (vaguely referred
to as scelus Italicum) touching the morals of Blandrata. The
1 See the note on p. 84, above.
"C
1
E
!
*
¿
DAVID AND BLANDRATA.
III
open ground of it was "innovation of doctrine" charged
against David. It would seem that Blandrata had kept
his place and something of his influence as court physician;
and he would naturally feel, or affect, a jealousy at what-
ever might risk the fortunes of the body he was one of the
chief founders of. At least, he showed marks of a real
and even generous concern for its interest, when he was at
so much pains and personal cost to prevent the difference
coming to an open breach by procuring the mediation of
Faustus Socinus, the highest in repute among Unitarian
scholars of that day.
He had not measured the moral quality of the man he
had to do with,-a man swift, bold, confident in asserting
his opinion, not hesitating at any open step his new con-
viction might demand. At forty-six we found him still a
Catholic, with Lutheran sympathies he never attempted
to disguise; at fifty-six, in the ranks of the more advanced
Genevan party; not till two years later, defined in his posi-
tion as a Unitarian. Following the same path a little far-
ther, we now find him, at sixty-eight, denying that cardinal
doctrine of the most advanced theology as yet known, that
Divine honors are to be ascribed, and prayer is to be ad-
dressed, to Christ, as-since his resurrection and ascension
into glory-a real though subordinate deity. We have
seen, in the story of the Polish Socinians, how tenaciously
they held to this article of faith, and how they appealed to
it as their ground of Christian consideration in the dreary
tragedy of their dispersion. To renounce it was in their
eyes a “Judaizing" apostasy. And we have not to won-
der if there was now, among the Unitarians of Transyl-
vania, sincere difference of opinion, with a genuine dread
of losing all they had gained if only they should take this
one further doubtful step.
To this sentiment, or apprehension, Blandrata now ap-
J
I 12
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
J
pealed. As to his personal motive in so doing, two things
lie against him. Of the eighteen articles drawn up to ex-
hibit David's position,¹ Blandrata is accused of having
forged the most offensive one, that which denies the super-
human birth of Jesus. Further, about this time, for some
service or favor unknown, he accepted from the prince the
grant of three villages, largely increasing his coveted wealth.
All that Christopher Bathori would engage to do, perhaps
all that could fairly be expected of him, was to protect the
Unitarians in that body of doctrine which they held and
taught when their charter was given them. The demand
of the more orthodox, that Francis David should be put to
death for heresy, he disdained and refused. The question
was left to what might seem a fair tribunal, one in which
Unitarian theologians made a part. It turned upon a sin-
gle point: Was Francis David guilty of innovation of doc-
trine? We are surprised to find that only one preacher of
his own communion, together with all of the lay nobility,
had the conviction or the courage to vote him innocent.
The formal condemnation and the sentence lay with the
prince, who adjudged him to be confined for life-strictly,
but with some alleviation of mercy, such as the company
of his daughter and the attendance of a son. The sentence
was passed on the 2d of June. Five months later, Novem-
ber 7, 1579, he died in a dungeon of the castle at Deva, in
his seventieth year.
data
This event had two marked effects on the Unitarian de-
velopment. First, those few churches in Hungary proper
in nearest sympathy with it now ceased to avow that sym-
pathy, and in the course of a century had died out under
the pressure of Austrian centralism, to be revived in part
not till our day. Second, the free intellectual develop-
2
1 Compare p. 64 (above), with note.
2 The district about the town of Pecs, in western Hungary, was for some
}
i
"
POLITICAL CHANGES; AUSTRIAN BARBARITIES. 113
ment, on which the inner growth depends, was blighted or
dwarfed. Unitarianism could subsist, under the new con-
ditions, only as a conservative sect:` a career, it might be,
useful and even honorable; but without glory, and making
no new advances. Its right of holding synods had already,
in 1577, been limited to the two cities of Klausenburg and
Thorda; and the liberty of making proselytes, accorded to
other Protestant persuasions, was denied to this.
As a conservative sect, however, it now had a period of
fair prosperity, lasting about forty years. The worship of
Christ was formally embodied in 'its established ritual, and
the neglected rite of baptism was generally revived.
An
efficient and wise successor to the bishopric was appointed,
Demetrius Hunyadi, who served nine years (1579-88).
He was followed by George Enyedi, a valiant champion
of the faith, who did not shrink, in public address, to
"scourge" the vacillating Sigismund, last of the three
Bathoris, who was forced in 1597 into alliance with the
Turks. For a moment the hopes of the Unitarian body
were revived under the heroic Moses Szekely, a man of
their own faith, who with the greater part of the Magyar
nobles fell in battle near Kronstadt in 1603, fighting hope-
lessly against the Turks aided by "the voivode of Walla-
chia with his wild hordes.”1 At this disastrous period
"the house of Hapsburg carried war into the country.
The general, Basta, burned the Protestant clergy on a pile
constituted of their own books. Nay, in his barbarity, he
even flayed some of them alive; and, with the aid of a
fanatical priesthood, he brought Transylvania to such a
time a place of refuge for their more liberal congregations. It is worthy of
notice that, since the late revival, six Unitarian churches are already gathered
in that district.
1 A monument in memory of the dreadful slaughter bears the inscription:
Quos genuit cives hic Transylvania condit.
Heu! parvo tumulo quanta ruina jacet!”
3
I 14
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
?
terrible famine, that even human corpses were not safe
before the gnawing hunger. Can we wonder," says Mr.
Fretwell, the generous and eloquent champion of the Hun-
garian cause, "that the Calvinist prince of Transylvania,
Stephen Bocskai, called in the aid of Mohammedans to
defend Hungary against men who blasphemed the name
of the Christian's God by associating it with such villain-
ies? And can we wonder that the Turk despised the
Christians, who forgot their common danger in sectarian
animosities?"
For a time, under Bocskai (1604-06), came a fresh re-
vival of hope. The churches taken from the Unitarians
in Klausenburg were restored. The Jesuits were expelled.
A reign of liberty was promised, and again the afflicted
church might seem well able to hold its ground, but for
the dissension sprung upon them from a new fanaticism.
As far back as 1588, one Andreas Oszi, a land-holder of
some consequence, seeking comfort from the Bible in sor-
row for the loss of his three sons, came to be possessed
with the opinion that the true Sabbath must be kept on
Saturday. This harmless craze, as it might seem, had
tragic consequences. The little sect that followed him
included some among the Unitarian Szeklers; and the
whole body were perversely made to suffer for it. The
famous Bethlen Gabor (Gabriel Bethlehem), champion of
the Protestants in Bohemia early in the Thirty Years'
War, was prince of Transylvania from 1613 to 1630: a
man of astonishing fighting resource and vigor, who at-
tempted in the south of Germany what Gustavus Adolphus
just after him effected in the north; of the hard type of
the narrow religious partisan; a bitter Calvinist, who aimed
to make the Protestant force a unit, and thus irresistible.
He undertook to suppress the new religious disorder.
pay
-
}
→
BETIILEN GABOR; SABBATARIAN CONTROVERSY. 115
Under a decree called the Simultaneum, sanctioned by a
synod in 1618, permitting different sects to occupy in com-
mon the same house of worship, he made inquisition among
the Unitarians, and found pretext to transfer sixty-two of
their churches to the Calvinists. He raided their coun-
try with three hundred troopers headed by an orthodox
bishop, making show of chastising the Sabbatarians; and
so, in his own fashion, he forced a religious peace. After
the death of Gabor the fanaticism was renewed under an
able leader, Simon Pecsi, once a tutor of Oszi's boys, and by
him made his heir. Pecsi had been employed by Gabor as
chancellor, and as commissioner to carry relief to Bohemia,
but failing in this mission had been cast by him into prison.
Here, brooding over his evil fate, and seeking comfort from
the same source with his old employer and friend, he found
it under the same form of belief, and left his prison a Sab-
batarian zealot. The schism was quieted in 1638, under a
settlement called the Complanatio Deesiaña, requiring new
pledges to the worship of Christ; and the Sabbatarian
party disappears, with its leader's death, in 1640.
Since that great loss of its sixty-two churches, Unita-
rianism had ceased to be the type and head of Protestant-
ism in Transylvania. Even in Klausenburg, its chief seat,
one fourth of its civil authority was by law conveyed to
Calvinists. It continued, however, to enjoy a modest and
useful security, chiefly occupied in the sober tasks of edu-
cation. An interesting episode of this period of quiet was
the arrival in Hungary of nearly four hundred exiles in
their flight from Poland under the barbarous decree of
John Casimir in 1660. They were set upon and spoiled
by robbers on the way, so that many perished, some were
scattered abroad in Hungary, and thirty or forty families
only found refuge at length in hospitable Klausenburg,
1
M
1
116
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. V.
where a congregation worshiped in the Polish tongue as
late as 1792.1
With the overthrow of Turkish power in 1687 came a
new series of political changes disastrous to the Unitarian
churches. Transylvania came again, as a province of Hun-
gary, under the Austrian rule, whose inexorable centralism
bore hard upon it. The "Leopoldine Compact" of 1691
confirms, it is true, the chartered rights of the several
"religions"; but chartered freedom has ever weighed light
against the dull bigotry of Hapsburg sovereigns. As early
as 1693 Unitarians were deprived of their schools in Klau-
senburg, and the cathedral church that had been theirs
since 1568 was coveted for Catholic possession. A few
years later (1716) that church was seized from them by
military force; and, though money compensation has been
offered them for it since, they have refused, choosing to
hold their legal title, which they hope some day to make
good. More than seventy years of suppression followed,
which might be called a chronic persecution. These years
included all of the reign (1740-80) of the "heroic" Maria
Theresa, who recompensed the well-known romantic loyalty
of her Hungarian subjects by "the unprecedented policy of
occupying half the official stations, in a nation of Evangeli-
cals, with Catholics." In 1721 the church at Thorda was
taken, in 1777 that at Kronstadt. All public offices were
forbidden to Unitarians, costing them the adhesion of many
noble families, their hereditary leaders: for why should they
be debarred from serving their country in the only way they
could? Through all this period of persecution," says Mr.
Fretwell, "the little band of Unitarians in the Szeklerland
remained firm. Of them an old Hungarian chronicler had
written that they were more severe in their morals than
((
THE
1 For a brief but curious account of this exiled community see Benkö,
Transsilvania," vol. ii., p. 583 (Vienna, 1778).
ST. ABRAHAM; RESTORATION OF 1791.
117
other Hungarians; and a Roman Catholic priest, writing
to Vienna, was honest enough to confess that they pos-
sessed great economic virtues, were diligent, moral, and
orderly men, exemplary in the performance of their duties
to the state. He, however, asked for their repression, be-
cause their good lives were a recommendation of their de-
testable doctrine, and a standing reproach to the impure
lives of the Catholic priesthood.”
"the
This iniquitous policy was continued till 1791, and was
in some points even worse under the well-meant but formal
and pedantic liberalism of Joseph II. (1780-90), who aimed
to repress the independent life of Hungary, imposing
everywhere the German tongue and law. Thus, says
Rath, "though the yoke was lighter, yet it chafed worse
here and there." This season of depression is relieved, for
the subjects of our story, by the genius of one man,
chief master-builder," Michael St. Abraham, "their eye,
heart, tongue," who revived their faith, restored their wor-
ship, reconstructed their religious body, and served them
well as bishop for twenty-one years (1737-58). To him
the Unitarian churches of our day are especially indebted
for quickening their religious life by the appeal at every
synod to the body of the congregation, so saving their
church order from being the mere machinery of an eccle-
siastical caste.
Ja
t
S
A statute of the year 1791 (copied in the “Sketch" by
Bishop Ferencz) recognizes in full the liberties of the four
constitutional “religions" of Transylvania. This was the
opening act of the present era of revival. Happily, it was
followed the next year by the generous bequest of a sum
equal to $40,000, from a wealthy land-holder, Ladislas
Szuki, who had abstained from founding a family that the
estate he had enlarged in his life might all go to the noblest
of objects at his death. This endowment has made pos-
I 18
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. V.
"
sible the larger educational work of the present century,
including maintenance of the college at Klausenburg, with
scholarships, charities, widows' and orphans' funds, and
school buildings both there and elsewhere. Again, in
1857, Paul Augustinowitz, a descendant of Polish exiles,
bequeathed his whole fortune to the Unitarian body,
making about one third of its entire endowment, and pro-
viding that one sixth of the income shall each year be
added to the principal. These, with the founding of a law
professorship about ten years earlier by Charles Rediger,
are the most conspicuous among many a generous effort
of these people in their poverty to strengthen the work of
their hands.
Of equal and possibly even greater importance has been
the help that has come to them from relations of sympathy
newly opened with the western world of religious thought.
In 1857 the Austrian authorities demanded proof that the
Unitarian churches of Transylvania, impoverished as they
were, could raise the means required to keep their schools
up to the government standard; adding the insidious offer
to furnish aid from public funds, on condition of controlling
the courses of instruction. Then rose (
a cry of terror and
of pain." In their need an appeal was made by Mr. John
Paget to generous friends in England, who came to their
relief. This was but the beginning. It was followed by
the endowment of a scholarship in Manchester New College
(now of Oxford), which brings their young men of promise
into the circles of highest English culture, while the alli-
ance is strengthened from year to year by interchange of
hospitalities on occasions of special public interest. Other
endowments have followed, of which the best known is a
professorship of the physical sciences founded by Mrs.
Richmond, of Providence, R. I., and enlarged by her chil-
dren in 1882.
part
Gand
1
119
The Unitarians of Transylvania have in their hands, as
we are given to understand, by acknowledgment of other
sects, the lead in the great work of general education.
Their numbers, it is true, are small and nearly stationary.¹
But the value of their work is not to be reckoned by num-
bers. That value was testified in person by the emperor
Francis Joseph on a recent visit. And, as evidence of the
position they have reached, it may be added that, at the
founding of the first Unitarian Church in Budapest, the
national capital, October 2, 1881, "the Minister of Edu-
cation, a Catholic, led the procession of guests in attend-
ance, followed by the Secretary of State, after whom
came the Calvinist Superintendent, the Privy-Councilor
Banffy, three Ministerial Councilors (Unitarian), three Par-
liamentary Deputies, our historian Alexis Jakab [keeper
of the archives], and many members of Parliament."
Catholic and Calvinist may be found to associate without.
jealousy in Unitarian assemblies, and they accord to Uni-
tarians (we are assured) the foremost place in the educa-
tional field.
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
1 In 1869, number of churches, 106; of members, 53,539.
¿C
(C
(C
"".
106;
53,862.
(C
1881,
-
In their religious work we specially note two things:
first, the fidelity with which this communion sustains its
organized church life, a formal and official sanctity being
given to institutions or rites much more marked than in
most liberal churches farther west; and, second, a whole-
some, secular, out-door temper in religious things, having
(if I may venture to trust my own judgment of them) less
than we are accustomed to see, nearer home, of an emo-
tional or purely sentimental piety. There, as elsewhere,
may be slackness in church attendance, indifference to
forms of belief, a marked drift to rationalism in opinion-
A
16
"The funded property of the country congregations amounts to something
over $100,000; their total indebtedness is only $1000" (1881).
120
[CHAP. V.
THE UNITARIANS.
14
not diminished, certainly, by the high honor paid to the
memory of Francis David; but along with these are an
energy, fidelity, devoted diligence in their work well de-
serving note. One of the sturdy country parsons whom I
met held his daily service at four o'clock on summer morn-
ings, when field laborers and harvesters, men and women,
would leave rake, sickle, or basket at the porch, while he
invoked a blessing upon their daily task. And the same
spirit, of a simple reverence and kindliness, may be said to
characterize alike the labors of the eloquent bishop in his
chair, and of the instructors in school or university.
7
g
CHAPTER VI.
ENGLISH PIONEERS.
WE have seen that the Unitarian opinion gained a foot-
hold in England during the early years of the Reformation,
particularly in connection with the "Strangers' Church,"
established in 1550, and that it was trodden out in the reign
of Queen Mary, under the same persecution with other
forms of antipapal heresy. In Elizabeth's time, a new
name, "Puritan," began presently to be heard (1564), de-
fining the new and advanced type of Protestantism, which
found itself more and more at variance with the Established
Church. The open battle was, however, not at first be-
tween forms of faith. It was rather, as in the controversy
of Cartwright and Hooker, between forms of church gov-
ernment, Presbyterian against Prelate. Individual belief
enjoyed a certain tolerance, or neglect. We see this in the
absolute freedom of discourse on religious things (when
touched at all) among the great wits of that age, as Shake-
speare, Spenser, Bacon, who appear wholly unmoved by
the religious passions of their day, so flagrant just then
upon the Continent. Such formal orthodoxy even as Bacon
professed was at a later day, when Independency had begun
to show its head. Statesmen like Burleigh, Walsingham,
even Leicester and Essex, are reckoned Puritan in faith,
but were clearly for a wholesome liberty in thinking.
Raleigh, who abundantly represents the heroic side of the
national struggle against popery, is even held to have been
forerunner and chief of the English Deists. Those strong
T
121
122
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
and brilliant men of the world gave to that birth-time of
England its true stamp. Protestantism with them, and
as the Queen herself was forced to put up with it, meant
national independence, a powerful check against Catholic
intolerance, hearty abhorrence of Rome, and of Spain as
the champion of Rome.
It is, then, with a painful shock we learn that, in 1575,
the writ of evil fame "for the burning of an heretic" (is-
sued in 1401 by Henry IV., to make his peace with the
church after his usurping of the royal power),¹ was waked
from a slumber of seventeen years, to extirpate a foreign
heresy. A little congregation of "Arian" Baptists-ap-
parently Dutch refugees from the horrors of Alva's rule-
meeting in secret, were arrested on Easter Sunday. Thirty
of its members were imprisoned, fourteen were banished
on pain of death, five died in dungeons, two were burned
alive on the 22d of the following July. "These unhappy
wretches," says Fuller, "more obstinate than the rest, died
in great horror, with crying and roaring." Nonconformists
had received due ecclesiastical warning, two years before.
The Queen had assented to an article declaring "that a
Christian government may lawfully punish heretics with
death." Still, Elizabeth seems to have felt that some de-
fense of the act was due to the public conscience. She
feared, it is said, lest it might be charged against her "that
she was more earnest in asserting her own safety than
God's honor" if she should put to death political conspira-
tors and spare those who had affronted the Divine majesty.
But the heresy survived, and took a form more definitely
Unitarian. One John Lewes is recorded to have been
"burned at Norwich, September 18, 1583, for denying the
godhead of Christ." Two years later a clergyman, Francis
1 This writ was repealed in 1677, when every bishop except one was
against the repeal."
((
PERSECUTION IN ENGLAND.
123
Ket, was burned at the same place for the same offense.
Most of the so-called martyrdoms of Elizabeth's reign may
fairly be ascribed to political conspiracies and alarms. The
four already recounted would seem to have been the only
martyrs for mere opinion. These were concessions to an
intolerance more deadly than her own. The Queen, it is
evident, had to keep the zeal of her ecclesiastics sharply in
hand.
The last example in this kind to be noted is under the
reign of James, whose Protestant policy was unhappily
dwarfed and warped by his conceit of a "kingcraft" that
should purchase terms of amity with the Catholic reaction,
then drifting steadily towards the horrors of the Thirty
Years' War. At Smithfield, in 1612, Bartholomew Legate
-a man "in person comely, complexion black, age about
forty years, of a bold spirit, confident carriage, fluent
tongue, excellently skilled in the Scriptures”—and at
Lichfield, Edward Wightman, were burned at the stake as
"Anabaptists and Arianizers." Thus, says an historian
of the Baptists, "this sect had the honor of leading the
way [in 1535] and bringing up the rear of all the martyrs
who were burned alive in England." It had been found
more expedient, writes Thomas Fuller, that heretics "should
silently and privately waste away in prisons, rather than
to grace them and amuze others with the solemnity of a
public execution." 1(Vol. ii., p. 64.)
The humble names now recorded are obscure waymarks
on the road that England was painfully traveling towards
a complete religious liberty. The Anglican Church, as we
are told, "under the Tudors was Erastian and Calvinist ;
under the Stuarts it was sacerdotal and Arminian." So
long, however, as the government was Protestant in name,
1 Nearly eight thousand are said to have thus perished in the evil days fol-
lowing the Restoration of 1660.
I24
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
RIANS.
*
((
there was no formal secession of Presbyterian from Episco-
pal. On one hand, Archbishop Laud is said to have been.
the strongest defense of the national church as against
papacy. On the other hand, under shelter of that eccle-
siastical alliance, the Puritan cause was slowly gaining
strength for the struggle that lay before it, little heeding
that it but led the way to the more daring assault of Inde-
pendency.
Puritanism, hitherto best known under such names as
Calvinist and Presbyterian, has been defined as implying
Scripturalism, a severe morality, popular sympathy, and
ardent attachment to civil freedom." A vigorous attempt
was made to hold it in check when, in 1640, Laud issued
a series of Canons,' the fourth of them being in condemna-
tion of "the damnable and cursed heresy of Socinianism."
Here we are struck by the emergence of a new name in
English theological parties. The Unitarians of Poland had
now just begun to decline from their prosperity and influ-
Two years before, they had felt the first hard blow
of persecution in their destruction of their college and press
at Racovia. The effect of this blow would naturally be to
scatter their opinions, like sparks, over a wider circle. And a
few points will here show how they had drawn such atten-
tion in England as to call forth Laud's special animosity.
ence.
As early as 1614, within ten years after the death of
Socinus, the "Racovian Catechism," in a Latin version, had
been publicly burned in London, and its circulation, so far
as might be, had been suppressed. In 1616 the first Eng-
lish church and congregation of Independents had been
gathered by Henry Jacob, a disciple and companion of John
Robinson in Leyden, who afterwards joined the Plym-
outh colony in America. With avowed Independency
came increased liberty of thinking in the body of the peo-
1 These will be found in Neal's " History of the Puritans," vol. ii.
Ja
K
125
})
ple. In 1635 appeared Chillingworth's great work in de-
fense of Protestantism, in which he made his celebrated
declaration that "the Bible, the Bible, the Bible only is
the religion of Protestants. This necessarily carried with
it the freedom of private criticism and interpretation.
Chillingworth was a writer who struck hard and sharp in
controversy. Hobbes likens him to "a lusty fighting fellow,
that did drive his enemies before him, but would often.
give his owne party terrible smart back-blowes." His
position was exactly that contended for from the beginning
by the Polish Unitarians; and it is no wonder that the
charge of "Socinianism" was at once made against him.
This was done in 1636, in a pamphlet by a Jesuit, Edward
Knott. In his first chapter Knott "gives an account of
the Socinians, in which he does everything in his power to
render them odious in the eyes of the public "; while in
the second chapter he makes a point against the Church
of England (which demands outward conformity only), that
it has no infallible Head, like Rome, and so invites laxity
and easiness of belief. The charge was followed up against
Chillingworth with extreme virulence until his death, in
1644, particularly by Francis Cheynell, rector of Petworth.
Cheynell published in 1643 a work entitled "The Rise,
Growth, and Danger of Socinianism, together with a Plain
Discovery of a Desperate Design of Corrupting the Protest-
ant Religion," ascribed to Chillingworth, and " encouraged
by the doctrines and practices of the Arminian, Socinian,
and Popish party." So far, indeed, he carried his animos-
ity, that at Chillingworth's burial he cast into the grave a
copy of his great " Defense," saying, "Get thee gone, thou
cursed book, which has seduced so many precious souls!
Get thee gone, thou corrupt, rotten book-earth to earth,
dust to dust! Go, rot with thy author!" The offense was,
to have "run madde with reason" and tolerated heresy.
WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH.
126
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
A few dates, carefully followed down, will serve to show
the steps by which Independency asserted itself against
both Presbyterianism and Prelacy, until the time of its
short triumph under Cromwell, and the assault made upon
it in all its forms by the Presbyterian party.
J
The challenge thrown out by Laud in 1640 was in-
stantly taken up by the Puritan party in the Long Parlia-
ment, which met that year. But the Presbyterians claimed,
as absolutely as Canterbury or Rome, to hold a form of
church government divinely ordained, of full authority
over belief and conduct; and the same weapons that had
beaten off their ancient foe, the Hierarchy, they now turned
against their new enemies, the Independents. From many
a passage in the magnificent pamphlets put forth by Milton,
from 1641 to 1644, we see with what enthusiasm, elo-
quence, and splendid hope the battle was kept up on
the other side. The Independents in King James's time
were, as Lord Bacon had scornfully said of them, "but a
very small number of very silly and base people, here and
there in corners dispersed." Hunted out of England in
1608, finding in Holland the secure shelter from which
they sent their colonists back into England and beyond
the sea, they had in 1616 a single congregation with vigor
enough to live; and "from this as a nucleus Independency
gradually spread through England, and, in spite of the
harsh measures of Laud and the court, came in the middle
of the century to occupy a dominant place among the
powers by which the destinies of England were swayed."
While the struggle of parties in the Long Parliament
was going on, and during the sessions of the Westminster
Assembly (1643-48), the controversy grew more bitter.
The Presbyterians, under their "League and Covenant,
hoped to force all of Britain and her dependencies into one
uniform pattern of church government: this led, indeed,
};
127
to the sending of a special embassy from New England in
1644, to protect its threatened system of Congregationalism.
In the same year appeared the first of a series of volumes
carrying on the attack on the Presbyterian side, whose very
titles carry in them the venom of the debate. The attack
had been provoked by the variety of sects and the excessive
laxity of opinion, leading to many a scandal and disorder,
which mere independency had quickly run into. "License
they mean when they cry liberty," expostulated Milton;
(6
asses, apes, and dogs," he did not scruple to call the con-
troversialists of his day. A few titles will show sufficiently
the general line followed in this battle of the books.
A bitter attack on Chillingworth, it will be remembered,
had appeared in 1643, in Cheynell's "Rise, Growth, and
Danger of Socinianism." The next year Thomas Edwards
published his "Antapologia [reply to a defense by Philip
Nye and others], wherein are handled the controversies of
these times," including a particular mention of the Socin-
ians. The "Antapologia" is offered as " a true glass to be-
hold the faces of Presbytery and Independency in, with the
beauty, order, and strength of the one, and the deformity,
disorder, and weakness of the other." Its tone, however,
is moderate, not to say dull, beside that of its more famous
sequel, published in 1645, under the title-
"Gangræna: A Catalogue and Discovery of Many of the
Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies, and Pernicious Practices of
the Sectaries of this Time." Of errors, one hundred and
seventy-six are catalogued, ranging from antitrinitarian
"blasphemies" to dangerous and lax assertions, very nu-
merous, in which sentiment disdains the bounds of reason.
Among “pernicious practices of the Sectaries," conspic-
uous are disorders introduced by Anabaptists, Antinomians,
and Familists (disciples of Free Love, as we should call
them), violating all decorum of public worship. Such
ATTACK ON INDEPENDENCY.
M
. 128
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
things, the writer holds, must be put down by force.
Toleration, he says, "is the grand design of the Devil, his
masterpiece and chief engine he works by at this time to
uphold his tottering kingdom." An appendix, or continu-
ation, published two years later, is in its title "The Casting
Down of the Last and Strongest Hold of Satan: A Treatise
against Toleration."
Again we have, in 1646, "The Utter Routing of the
Whole Army of all the Independents and Sectaries," by
John Bostwick, whose character and temper appear suf-
ficiently in its title.
In 1647 appeared the fourth edition of a book by
Ephraim Pagitt, entitled "Heresiography: or, A Descrip-
tion of the Heretickes and Sectaries sprung up in these
Later Times," both "Socinians, who teach that Christ dyed
not to satisfie for our sins," and "Arrians, who deny the
Deity of Christ."
Finally, in 1648, was published "A Survey of the Spirit-
ual Antichrist, Opening the Secrets of Familism and Anti-
nomianism." This interests us, in particular, by its recital
of the story of Ann Hutchinson and her following in Bos-
ton twelve years before, with its tragic sequel.
These last items bear upon our present topic chiefly as
part of the process that led to the "Draconic " ordinance
against blasphemy and heresy, passed in May, 1648. This
ordinance was the final effort of the Presbyterian party to
suppress freedom of discussion by public law. Its imme-
diate occasion was a translation of "Satan's Stratagems
(a treatise by Jacopo Aconzio, an Italian jurist and engi-
neer of Elizabeth's time '), which had led to an investiga-
tion of Socinianism at Oxford. "It enacted that all such
persons as willingly, by preaching, teaching, printing, or
writing, maintain and publish that the Father is not God,
1 See Cantù, vol. iii., p. 82; also Prof. Bonet-Maury's "Origines."
}}
CROMWELL'S.“ARTICLES”; BAXTER'S “ESSENTIALS.” 129
the Son is not God, or the Holy Ghost is not God, or that
they three are not One Eternal God, or that in like man-
ner maintain and publish that Christ is not equal with the
Father, shall be adjudged guilty of felony. And in case
the party upon his trial shall not abjure his said error and
defense and maintenance of the same, he shall suffer the
pains of death, as in case of felony, without benefit of
clergy."
Pod
Seven months later, "Pride's Purge" had effectually
destroyed the power of the Presbyterian party in Parlia-
ment, and the ordinance was never carried into full effect.
Independency was already dominant in the army.
A new
era of tolerance had begun when, in 1653, Cromwell an-
nounced his "Articles for the government of the Common-
wealth." These, while they "recommend" the Christian
religion as "the public profession of these nations," and
guarantee that it shall be duly maintained and taught, add
that "none shall be compelled by penalties or otherwise "
to such public profession, "but that endeavors be used to
win them by sound doctrine and the example of a good
conversation." They add, further, that all professing
Christian belief "shall be protected in the profession of the
faith and exercise of their religion, . . . provided this lib-
erty be not extended to Popery or Prelacy, nor to such as,
under the profession of Christ, hold forth and practice.
licentiousness." 1 Further, to explain the true meaning of
these articles, Richard Baxter in this same year (1653)
drew up an enumeration of the "essentials" of the Chris-
tian religion, having been "sent for up to London" for
this purpose.
These "essentials" were the Decalogue,
the Lord's Prayer, and the Apostles' Creed. Some friends
objected that his terms were so broad as to include both
Papists and Socinians; upon which, he says, "I answered
1 Articles xxxv-xxxvii.
130
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VI.
them, 'So much the better, and so much the fitter it is to
be the matter of our concord.'
})
To complete this record of the Commonwealth period,
the following may be added. (1) In 1655 was published
"The Gospel Defense" (Vindicia Evangelica) of John
Owen, most eminent of scholars among the Independents,
then doing good service at Oxford in upholding the cause
of sound learning in the university. It was written to
counteract the Unitarian heresy, too well protected under
the toleration enforced by Cromwell.¹ "The evil is at the
doore," he says; "there is not a Citty, a Towne, scarce a
Village in England, where some of this poyson is not
poured forth." The book is further interesting to us
from a pretty full though distorted and hostile narrative
of the antitrinitarian movement in Poland and Transylvania.
(2) In 1656 appeared Chewney's "Anti-Socinianism,” with
an appendix entitled "Heresiarchy: or, A Cage of Unclean
Birds, Containing the Authors, Propagators, and Chief Dis-
seminators of this Damnable Socinian Heresie," of which
the title shall here suffice. (3) In 1657 John Bagshaw
produced in Latin "Two Anti-Socinian Dissertations,'
showing" that Socinians ought not to be called Christians,'
and disputing" whether the good works of unbelievers are
sinful." These three are mostly a harmless rethreshing of
the old straw of controversy. They serve, at best, to put
In relief the noble tolerance of the great Protector, who was
observed in his later years to be gentler towards all men,
even to those of the Church of England.
The events thus briefly traced in outline make the back-
ground on which we have now to follow the biography of
the man who best represents the movement we are con-
sidering.
""
})
M
1 In this year, as told below (p. 134), Cromwell sent John Biddle to a safe
restraint in the Scilly Islands, taking him out of the city prison, where he
was confined by order of the Parliament.
131
(C
John Biddle has been called the father, the earliest wit-
He was
ness, and the martyr of English Unitarianism.
born in 1615, in a small town near Gloucester. 'His
father," says his earliest biographer, "was of a middle sort
of yeoman, and also dealt in woolen clothes, by which
means he maintained his family honestly, and with credit
suitable to his rank, or rather above it." The boy was so
proficient in the free school of his native town that before
he was ten he drew the notice of a gentleman of the neigh-
borhood, who, by an "exhibition" (or annual gift) of ten
pounds, liberal for those days, helped him to the best edu-
cation to be had. At twenty-three he was a graduate of
Oxford, and at twenty-six master of arts and principal of
the Crisp Free School in Gloucester. While in the uni-
versity he had been known as especially grave and studi-
ous, inclined to serious things. He knew by heart, it was
said, the whole of the New Testament, Greek as well as
English, down to and including the first four chapters of
Revelation." At twenty-nine (May 2, 1644) he had
formulated a confession of faith as to the trinity, its main
points being (1) that there is but one Divine Essence, prop-
erly called God; (2) that God, in this highest sense, exists
but in one Person; (3) that Christ is truly God "by being
truly, really, and properly united" with the Father. So
far, this seems to have been purely a personal confession,
the ground and motive of a very thoughtful and humble
piety. To avoid cavil, he altered the phrase a little later,
so as to admit three in that one Divine Essence, com-
monly termed Persons."
CC
JOHN BIDDLE.
K
These have been commonly held to be the terms of a
safe and sufficient orthodoxy, at least for the ordinary and
public profession of belief. But they led to private dis-
cussion among near friends, and to further study on his
part, in the course of which he drew up twelve arguments
Ta
132
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VI.
G
touching the proper deity of the Holy Ghost. These were
heedlessly or maliciously reported outside the circle of in-
quirers, and so came to the knowledge of the magistrates.
In consequence, the obscure, poor, and modest provincial
schoolmaster was summoned before the awful bar of the
Presbyterian Parliament, On the 2d of December, 1645,
though sick with fever, he was cast into a common jail.
A friend in Gloucester gave bail for him, with six months'
liberty; and here he was visited by Archbishop Usher,
who labored kindly to convince him of his error. Again
he was arrested, and a committee was deputed to examine
him. This came to nothing, except that a copy of his
argument was burned,
Six months after his first arrest, he addressed a pathetic
appeal to Sir Henry Vane, beseeching, "If you have any
bowels towards them that are in misery, that you would
either procure my discharge, or at least make report to
the House touching my denial of the supposed deity of the
Holy Spirit: " the only point in question, since he had re-
fused to be drawn into a discussion of the nature of Christ.
At this time, indeed, he seems to have been ignorant of
any argument of the Socinians. His view is wholly origi-
nal and his own. He follows his appeal with a long state-
ment of reasons, wishing, no doubt, to put the whole case
in the hands of so generous an advocate as Vane. His
own words avowing his belief and motive are his best
exposition. "There is, I say, one principal Spirit among
the good angels, called by the name of the Advocate, or
the Holy Spirit, or the Good Spirit of God, or the Spirit by
way of eminence. This opinion of mine is attested by the
whole tenor of the Scripture, which perpetually speaketh
of him as differing from God, and inferior to him; but is
irrefragably proved by these places of Scripture "—which
are cited at much length. "Of these places thus recited,"
133
he continues, "no man, though never so subtle, and
though he turn and wind his wit every way, shall ever be
able to make sense, unless he take the Holy Spirit to be
what I say." And he further adds, "For my own particular,
after a long, impartial inquiry of the truth in this contro-
versy, and after much earnest calling upon God to give
unto me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowl-
edge of him, I find myself obliged, both by the principles
of Scripture and of reason, to embrace the opinion I now
hold forth; and as much as in me lieth, to endeavor that
the honor of Almighty God be not transferred to another,
not only to the offense of God himself, but also of his Holy
Spirit, who cannot but be grieved to have that ignorantly
ascribed to himself which is proper to God that sends him,
and which he nowhere challengeth to himself in Scripture.
What shall befall me in the pursuance of this work I refer
to the disposal of the all-wise God, whose glory is dearer
to me not only than my liberty, but than my life." 1
"God
is jealous of his honor" is the phrase he afterwards used
to justify his own persistent urging of the argument. The
next year, in "a confession of faith touching the Holy
Trinity according to the Scripture," he would not deny the
doctrine, but only its unscriptural interpretation. This
confession was apparently composed in prison. It was
printed in 1648, and reprinted, as we have it now, by his
friend Thomas Firmin, in 1691.
JOHN BIDdle.
To silence this one poor schoolmaster is said to have
been the pressing motive for urging the "Draconian ordi-
nance" against blasphemy and heresy already described
(p. 128). But bigotry overshot its mark. The ordinance
was so loaded down with details of the creed it would
maintain, and the heresies it meant to stifle, that practically
it lay a dead letter. Meanwhile the great political crisis.
1 From vol. i. of "Unitarian Tracts," published in 1691.
!
S
134
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
was more urgent still. The strong hand of Cromwell held
intolerance under, and for three years more John Biddle
lay in jail, seemingly forgotten. He was released in Feb-
ruary, 1651, nearly perishing from neglect, nearly starved
by poverty. He earned a scanty living by editing a
scholarly edition of the Septuagint; and when, by the
Act of Oblivion, of February 10, 1652, he was safe from
molestation, he gathered about him the nucleus of a Uni-
tarian society. This, however, did not outlast his death.
We presently find him busied in translating and circulat-
ing the writings of Unitarians abroad, including a biography
of Socinus, But his chief offense appears to have been a
"Twofold Catechism," published in 1654, answering ques-
tions of doctrine in the very words of Scripture. A reply
soon appeared, under the title "The Blasphemer Slain."
On the 12th of December Parliament declared the "Two-
fold Catechism" heretical and blasphemous, ordering all
copies of it to be burned; and the next day its author was
committed to close confinement in the "Gate-house." Par-
liament would have proceeded further with him, but on
the 22d of January it was suddenly dissolved by Cromwell.
Biddle was released, but was again arrested in sequence
of a new discussion. To keep the peace between the dis-
putants as well as might be, he was now sent to an honor-
able and restful retirement in the Scilly Islands by Crom-
well, who made a modest allowance for his support.
Returning to London on his release, in the spring of
1658, after two and a half years of quiet activity—“ enjoy-
ing much Divine comfort from the heavenly contemplations.
which his retirement gave him opportunity for "—he took
up again his pastoral charge, only retreating for a time into
the country after Cromwell's death, in September of that
year. When "the king came to his own again," in 1660,
he prudently confined himself to private ministrations.
*
Intel
J
padd
JOHN BIDDLE; THOMAS FIRMİN.
But he did not so escape the cruelty of his persecutors.
"For on the 1st of June, 1662, he was haled out of his
lodgings, where he was convened with some few of his
friends for Divine worship, and carried before Sir Richard
Brown, who forthwith committed them all to the public
prison, John Biddle to the dungeon, where he lay for five
hours, and was denied the benefit of the law which admits
offenders of that sort to bail for their appearance." He
was condemned to a fine of one hundred pounds, with
a threat of seven years' imprisonment. But within five
weeks, "by reason of the noisomeness of the place and the
pent air," he fell into a deadly sickness. He was barely
able to be removed for two days of repose among friends,
when he died, on the 22d of September, at the age of forty-
seven. He had often said
He had often said "that if he should be once more
cast into prison, he should never be restored to liberty;
and, moreover, that the work was done."
The little church gathered by John Biddle did not sur-
vive him, though the doctrine he taught was silently
adopted in many dissenting congregations at a later day.
It was embraced, with eager assent, among others by a
young disciple, Thomas Firmin (1632-97), of whose most
honorable record as a Unitarian layman a word should
be said in this place. He had already been turned from
his Calvinistic belief by an Arminian preacher, John Good-
win; and his name appears among the group that through
Biddle's long season of persecution had stood true to him.
Although in later years he commonly worshiped in the
Church of England, he held his liberal faith through his
prosperous, beneficent, and honored life. He was a Lon-
don merchant, a man of modest fortune (never exceeding
some forty thousand dollars), which he drew upon for
charitable uses with a wealth of generosity amazing and
unexampled in those profligate days. The amount of
ind
135
•
K
136
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
3
misery he relieved in the dreadful times of the plague
and the great fire of 1666 was beyond computation. His
charity, too, was wise as it was liberal and open-handed,-
a charity that knew no difference of nation or sect, while
it created and kept up lines of self-respecting industry.
His heresy, well known and openly avowed, did not de-
prive him of the amplest reward of gratitude from all
parties in his lifetime, and generous praise is recorded of
him in a monument upon the wall of the parish church he
attended. To him we probably owe the survival of the
very name and memory of John Biddle; certainly, of his
biography and his full profession of belief, for at his own
cost he gathered and published, in 1691, the papers which
make up the first of six volumes of the "Unitarian Tracts." 1
The series itself gives the share taken by the defenders of
that belief in the vigorous discussion that went on during
the last years of the century. This remarkable episode in
the history of religious thought in England remains now
to be described.
:
If the Presbyterian party, which had brought to pass the
restoration of the king, rejoiced in the condemnation of the
man they had been eager to destroy, they were speedily
brought to a better mind. Just within a month before
John Biddle's death, two thousand of their ministers made
noble atonement for whatever fault that party had been
guilty of, by voluntarily resigning their livings in the
Church of England on the new "St. Bartholomew's Day"
(August 24, 1662), expelled by the Act of Uniformity lately
passed. Charles's pledge had been "that no man shall
be disquieted or called in question for differences of opin-
ion on matters of religion, which do not disturb the peace
of the kingdom." Under this heavy blow, the Puritan theo-
1 This rare and indispensable record exists, complete, in the Harvard
University library.
16
A
•
137
logians-Nonconformists now, and presently to be known
as Dissenters-lost their stomach for speculative debate,
which went henceforth into other hands.
WILLIAM PENN.
An occasion for renewing the debate was found in 1688.
A Presbyterian preacher, Thomas Vincent, had sharply
rebuked some members of his congregation who had gone
for curiosity to hear the doctrine declared at a Quaker
meeting. Quakerism had come up twenty-one years be-
fore, in 1647, through the testimony of George Fox, in a
time when there was great laxity in belief and disorder of
morals, after the crushing defeat of monarchy in the field;
and had just gained, in 1667, its most distinguished ad-
vocate in Robert Barclay. Among others, it was' early
embraced by that warm-hearted, brilliant, opinionated
youth, William Penn, who was at this time closely intimate
with one of its most noted preachers, George Whitehead.
Resenting the contumely of Vincent, who charged its doc-
trine of the Inner Light as "damnable," these two now
demanded a hearing, which was grudgingly allowed them
in the Presbyterian chapel, already packed with unfriendly
auditors. The debate was at once turned to a challenge
of their opinion on the trinity; and, whatever they might
wish to say, they soon found it "impossible to obtain a
hearing."
This incident led Penn, now at the age of twenty-four,
to prepare and publish a little pamphlet, with the title
"The Sandy Foundation Shaken." It is an argument of
appeal or protest, rather than of labored criticism; a plain,
brave, frank word, suited to open a discussion, not a trea-
tise or an essay, such as the controversial fashion of the
time might seem to demand. Even at our later day we
are struck by the vigor and decision of the protest. The
scholastic doctrine of the trinity; the assertion that "satis-
faction" can be made for the sin of one by the suffering
1
K
138
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
of another, or that one who is himself guilty can be "jus-
tified" by another's righteousness,-these cardinal points.
of Calvin's creed are attacked, not by arguments carefully
drawn from Scripture, but by appeal to the natural reason
and conscience of men. We seem, in this appeal, to hear
the very voice of our own day, rather than those echoes of
the past we have been so long used to. Channing, in his
most convincing argument, did not go an inch beyond it.
Meanwhile there went on a quiet spread of Unitarian.
opinion in England, embracing the illustrious names of
John Milton and Algernon Sidney. Milton's argument,
which is that commonly called Arian, is contained in a
Latin treatise on "Christian Doctrine," which lay in
manuscript till 1823, when it was brought to light and
soon after published, with a translation, making the text of
Macaulay's celebrated essay. Sidney's is included among
those speculations, political and philosophic, which brought
him to the block in 1683. There was, too, a steady inflow
of antitrinitarian writings from the, Continent, mostly from
Polish sources, which called out, among other protests, in
1680, a dissertation on Socinus and Socinianism by George
Ashwell, who sums up his judgment of the man in the
generous terms before quoted.¹
A more important waymark of the course the weary
debate now took is found in a Latin essay, "A Defense of
the Nicene Faith," by the Rev. George Bull, published in
1685. This essay is partly a concession to the stress of
argument on purely Scripture grounds, partly an attempt
to guide the discussion into a different channel. The
Christian writers before Athanasius are cited in much
detail, with a view to show that the real mind of the early
church, while ascribing every Divine perfection to the Son
and Spirit, made these "subordinate" in the one point,
1 At the end of Chapter III. (p. 72).
1
#
139
that the Father alone is self-subsistent, and that from him.
alone those perfections are granted and derived. This
view was attacked about thirty years later, on Arian
grounds, in a pamphlet by Daniel Whitby.¹
1
But the way was really opened to the controversy now
about to follow, by the Toleration Act of 1689, passed
after the accession of William and Mary. This Act ex-
cluded both papists and deniers of the trinity from the
indulgence granted to Dissent. Still, the granting of it,
as Locke foresaw, was likely to bring about a larger liberty.
In this very year the Houses of Convocation, then sitting,
had their attention called to certain brief "Notes" on the
Athanasian Creed, with other writings of heretical tendency.
In 1690 the debate was fairly opened by Dr. Arthur Bury,
rector of Lincoln College, in a tract entitled "The Naked
Gospel." This tract charges that the church doctrine of
the trinity, after centuries of debate, was first made obli-
gatory by an edict of Theodosius, later than 380. Its
author would forestall controversy on the subject by lim-
iting debate to the one question, What was the doctrine
actually taught by Christ and the apostles? The discus-
sion that now follows lay wholly within the limits of the
Church of England, and was conducted by eminent divines
belonging to that church. It gives us three differing
points of view.
TOLERATION ACT; BURY; WALLIS.
—
The first is shown in an essay entitled "Letters on the
Trinity," by Dr. John Wallis, an elderly Oxford professor
of mathematics. The form of doctrine, he urges, is es-
sential by reason of the dignity and steadiness it gives to
the church system of faith. The only difficulty is in its
philosophic interpretation. But why perplex ourselves
with that? Let us only, for the sake of peace, accept the
dictum of the church that there are "three Somewhats" in
1 Printed in Sparks's "Tracts," vol. i.
140
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VI
1
the Divine nature, which we may explain as we will, but
certainly cannot understand. "These three Somewhats
we commonly call Persons; but the true notion and true
name of that distinction is unknown to us." God, he
says, "beareth to his creatures these three relations, modes,
or respects that he is their Creator, their Redeemer, their
Sanctifier. That is what we mean, and all that we mean,
when we say God is in three Persons." Take the simplest
of mathematical illustrations: has not a cube three "some-
whats," which we call its three dimensions-length, breadth,
and height? Of these no one can be confounded with
either of the others, and they are all equal; yet they are.
not three cubes, but one. May we not interpret our doctri-
nal formula in some such way as this?
The challenge is next taken up by Dr. William Sherlock,
dean of St. Paul's, and father of the more celebrated
preacher, in a "Vindication of the Holy and Ever-Blessed
Trinity." He goes into the discussion too hastily, with a
tone needlessly domineering and with some carelessness
of phrase, thinking to give weight to his argument by a
terminology which he has not clearly thought out to him-
self beforehand. What constitutes a Person, he says, is
self-consciousness. We accept the Trinity as consisting of
three Persons: now each of these is distinct in his own
self-consciousness, "just as three finite and created minds
are; " while "they are united into one by a mutual con-
sciousness, which no created spirits have.' This assertion,
repeated again and again, with some variety and expansion
of phrase, as if he would drown objection by the ampli-
tude of tone in which it is spoken,-makes the substance
of his argument.
The "
Vindication" called out that somewhat virulent
wit of the Establishment, Dr. Robert South. He attacks
it, in a style gratuitously offensive if not insulting, by
Cat
})
G
--
T
SHERLOCK;
WI AM SHERLOCK; ROBERT SOUTH.
141
J
Animadversions upon Dr. Sherlock's Book" (1693), and
again in "Tritheism Charged upon Dr. Sherlock's New
Notion of the Trinity" (1695). We may pass over the
cavils at his opponent's lordly tone and at the phrases al-
ready quoted, and come to the definition which he would
put in their place: "The three Persons of the blessed
Trinity are one and the same undivided Essence, Nature,
or Godhead, diversified only by three different modes of
subsistence, which are sometimes called properties and
sometimes relations;" and these again, as found in spirit-
ual natures, he compares to "postures" in material forms.
We do hold and affirm," he says, "that the Father com-
municates his nature, under a different mode of subsisting
from what it has in himself, to another; and that such a
communication of it, in such a peculiar way, is called his
begetting of a son" (p. 292).
This substitution of feebler phrases for the sublime
though perhaps vague symbolism under which the church
has veiled the eternal mystery of the Godhead, exposed
Dr. South to as merciless retort, as keenly pressed, as that
he had applied to Sherlock. As it looked to unfriendly
eyes, the situation was this: three men, all eminent theo-
logians, all speaking with authority, all accepting the same
creed, all members of the same Establishment, gave each
an interpretation to the same words which both the others
held to be heretical and misleading; constructively, even-
blasphemous. Thus their Unitarian critics were well con-
tent to leave them to confute one another. One view,
they said, was clearly tritheistic, one was Sabellian, while
the third they could themselves well assent to.¹ The three
interpretations continued, however, to abide together, as
peaceably as they might, in the shelter of the Establish-
ment. This was now, in a time of violent political changes,
1 See "Unitarian Tracts," vols. ii, and iii.
"
142
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
taking on a secular or "Erastian" tone, never quite
equaled before or since. In a splenetic attack on the
Whigs of his own day, Charles Davenant says (1701), "A
modest Christian durst hardly put in a word for the Second
Person of the Trinity without exposing himself to laughter."
And he adds, "Are not many of us able to point to sev-
eral persons whom nothing has recommended to places of
the highest trust, and often to rich benefices and dignities,
but the open enmity which they have, almost from their
cradles, to the divinity of Christ?" A well-known ex-
ample of the "Arian" clergy of that day is Dr. Samuel
Clarke, who wrote, in 1724: "The Scripture, when it
mentions the One God, or the Only God, always means the
Supreme Person of the Father;" and again, "The Son, or
Second Person, is not self-existent, but derives his being
or essence, and all his attributes, from the Father, as from
the Supreme Cause" (pp. 224, 270). No Unitarian state-
ment had hitherto said more than this.
In 1695 appeared Locke's "Reasonableness of Christian-
ity," maintaining that the one "essential" of Christian be-
lief is the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah. This was at
once assailed by John Edwards, son of the author of "Gan-
græna," with almost all his father's virulence, charging that
Locke was a Socinian but afraid to own it. Locke might
well reply, as he did, that he had not read a single Socinian
book. But all the charge implied was in the air. What-
ever was most free in the heritage of thought, Locke had
entered into as deeply as any man. The real importance
of his "Reasonableness," in the history of opinion, is that
it was the last word, spoken judicially, in a long debate.
which could now only repeat itself; and that it was the
1 Works (ed. of 1778), vol. iii., p. 322. I have a MS. list (prepared by
the late Pishey Thompson, Esq., of Washington, D. C.) of thirty-three clergy-
men of the Church of England, including an archbishop and four bishops, of
known Unitarian opinions.
20
LOCKE'S "REASONABLENESS"; THOMAS EMLYN. 143
immediate prelude to the Deistical Controversy, which en-
gaged the more radical thinkers of England for the next
fifty years.¹
The name of one other Unitarian witness interests us,
from the influence it had in the discussion that sprang
up a little later in America. Thomas Emlyn (1663-1741)
-a man of serious, sweet, and candid temper, a devoted
pastor, especially tender and comforting in prayer-began
his career among the Nonconformists, preaching at the
early age of nineteen, in London. He was an eye-witness,
the next year, of the execution of Lord William Russell,
which no doubt helped confirm him in the faith of free-
dom. At twenty-one he went to Belfast, in the household
of a family of rank. In the revolutionary year, 1688, we
find him preaching " with pistols in his pocket" in the dis-
turbed district of the north of Ireland. In discussion with
a friend on Sherlock's "Vindication," he held to the Arian
view against the Socinian. But he never carried the argu-
ment into the pulpit, where his teaching was always grave,
tender, and practical. After a ten years' ministry in Dub-
lin, while in his fresh grief at the loss of his admirable
wife, he was called to account for his private opinions.
His aged colleague was put on the stand to testify of his
intimate conversations. Narrow Nonconformists appealed
to church and state against him, and he was punished by
a year's imprisonment, with a fine of a thousand pounds.
The witness of his later life in England is found in a vol-
ume of sermons and one of essays in defense of his opinions,
introduced by a biography warm from a friendly hand.
One pitiful tragedy completes the tale of the period
we have been reviewing. In January, 1697, one Thomas
Aikenhead, a boy of eighteen, a student in the University
of Edinburgh, "not vicious, and extremely studious," was
1 See the author's "Christian History," vol. iii., pp. 176–181.
144
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNITARIANS.
executed for blasphemy. The Scottish capital, apparently,
had not caught the cosmopolitan temper which would have
made such an act impossible in London. Within two
years, an old statute inflicting the penalty of death for
blasphemy had-to the horror of such minds as Locke's-
been furbished up afresh. The boy Aikenhead was con-
victed, by testimony of his college-mates, of such offenses
as saying, in the warmth of debate, that to him the phrase
"god-man" was as meaningless as if one should say
goat-stag," or "square-round," with other expressions.
which were construed to signify contempt of the Bible or
of the Divine name. He was tried, without counsel to
cross-examine the witnesses (college boys like himself) or
explain to them what their testimony might imply as to
the fate before him. The most important part of the evi-
dence he explicitly denied. Three years later, or a little
more, the Act of Union between England and Scotland
would probably have made this shocking act impossible.
Heresy could no longer be punished by death in Eng-
land. But, to propitiate such bigotry as still suvived, an
act was passed, in 1698, "for the more effectual suppress-
ing of blasphemy and profaneness." It contained the
following terms, which are an essential sequel to the review
that has now been taken: namely, that "if any person
having been educated in, or at any time having made pro-
fession of, the Christian religion, within this realm, shall
by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking, deny
any one of the Persons of the Holy Trinity to be God; or
shall assert or maintain that there are more Gods than one,
or shall deny the Christian religion to be true, or the holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be of Divine
authority, and shall be thereof lawfully convicted by the
oath of two or more credible witnesses, such person shall
for the first offense be adjudged incapable and disabled in
((
/
145
J
law to have and enjoy any office or employment, civil or
military" the penalty for repeating the offense being
total loss of all civil rights-such as right to inherit or de-
fense at law-with three years' imprisonment. This su-
premely wicked statute-wicked because passed by men
without conscience or conviction on the subject, and made
intentionally a dead letter except when it might serve for
malicious prosecution-was not repealed till 1813.
Uni-
tarians in England were not reinvested with their full civil
rights until the passage of the "Dissenters' Chapels Act"
in 1844.¹
LAST ACTS OF INTOLERANCE.
1 See below, p. 153.
1
}
CHAPTER VII.
"C
UNITARIAN DISSENT IN ENGLAND.
THE discussion which filled so large a space at the close
of the seventeenth century gave to the Unitarian doctrine,
more or less disguised, a certain recognized standing both
in the Established Church and among the more educated
of the Nonconformists. Two names, in particular, show
this result. Samuel Clarke (1675-1729), eminent alike
as a scholar, a mathematician, and a churchman, the best
known defender at that day of a philosophical theism, held a
position frankly Arian; and his revised liturgy was adopted,
almost without change, in the earlier Unitarian congrega-
tions. Nathaniel Lardner (1684-1768), the most learned
theologian among the Presbyterians, and far the most em-
inent defender of historical Christianity against the Deists,
confessed a Unitarianism more and more pronounced, dur-
ing a career distinguished as much for candor and thought
as for laborious erudition. Thus, for more than half a
century, there was a complete lull in a dispute that a little
while before had looked so implacable and vindictive.
To explain this change, we note that the Deistical
controversy-following from the argument of Locke's
Reasonableness," and occupying almost exactly the first
half of the eighteenth century (1696-1748)-had opened
up a new issue, that of Rationalism pure and simple. In
that debate the Unitarians ranked themselves, with strong
conviction, among the defenders of a miraculous revelation.
For considerably more than a hundred years not one of
any note among them wavered in this position. And,
146
"3
PRESBYTERIAN, INDEPENDENT, BAPTIST.
147
while the stress of that controversy lasted, questions of
doctrinal interpretation were dwarfed, if not forgotten.
The body of English Dissenters had been drawn to-
gether by the common and deep wrong they suffered
under, through the series of execrable acts passed by the
government of the Restoration. From time to time at-
tempts were made to give them unity and strength under
some form of confession that might embrace them all.
But the pressure was lightened by the Act of Tolera-
tion (1689); and the Dissenting body, which had come
together from widely different sources, fell again into its
natural groups. The Presbyterians-as nobly shown in
the case of Baxter-had inherited something of the mental
breadth, the pliancy of organization, and the comparative
easiness as to doctrine, that belong to a great secular Estab-
lishment, like that from which they had withdrawn against
their will. The Independents, who had voluntarily for-
saken the National Church for conviction's sake, held more.
rigidly to their points of faith, and became forerunners of
the stricter Evangelical bodies of a later day. Individuals
among them, however, held that faith loosely, as Watts
(1674-1748), who is understood to have died a Unitarian ; 2
and Doddridge (1702-51), whose vague "in-dwelling
scheme" was hardly less heretical. The Baptists had
never been bound by a formal creed, and their theology,
sharply individualized, had proved the germ or the ally
of various heresies; but they were more closely held by
their strict requirement of adult baptism, which defined
them sharply as a sect, tending also to divide into sub-
1 The Act of Uniformity, 1662; the Conventicle Act, 1664; the Five-Mile
Act, 1665; the Test and Corporation Acts, 1673 (abolished, 1828). Under
the operation of these it is stated that, from first to last, nearly eight
thousand persons perished in various prisons.
even to the camp of
2 "I have sometimes carried reason," he says,
Socinus; but then Saint John gives my soul a twitch."
C
1
148
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNITARIANS.
sects-some Sabbatarian, some of a more free communion.
These several tendencies reappear in the later history of
Unitarian Dissent. While not one of its congregations
bears the title "Independent," no less than twenty-five
(eight in England and seventeen in Ireland) are still known
as "Presbyterian," and several were originally Baptist-
though only two of them (one each in England and in
Wales) have kept that name in their recorded title. So
many of them are, in fact, of Presbyterian descent, that that
name has been seriously proposed, in our day, for adoption
by the whole body of Liberal congregations, so as to avoid
the narrow polemic associations of the title "Unitarian."
Under the conditions of toleration granted them, Eng-
lish Dissenters were bound by the harsh and unjust restric-
tion that they must assent to all the properly doctrinal arti ·
cles of the Church of England, that is, to thirty-five out
of the thirty-nine,-having dispensation only from the four
which define the claims of church authority. The restric-
tion was as futile as it was unjust. Latitude of interpreta-
tion was not likely to be more fettered outside the church
walls than within them. We may, it is true, assume that
the subscription of Dissenters was oftener honestly made
than that of Churchmen. But it was felt to be a badge of
subjection, and it galled. It was, besides, not only a check
on honest liberty of thinking, but a standing invitation to
casuistry and subterfuge. This point of conscience pricked
more and more sharply as the stress of the Deistical con-
troversy abated. And we find, accordingly, just after the
middle of the century, a series of efforts or appeals to Par-
liament-long made in vain, though urged by a most in-
telligent and influential portion of the Anglican clergy-
to have the terms of subscription lightened.¹
1 A bill of relief passed the Commons in 1772, but was defeated by the
Lords. Since 1779, only "belief in Christianity" is required of the Dissent-
ing clergy.
THEOPHILUS LINDSEY.
149
It is just here that Unitarian Dissent in England properly
begins. Its history will be best told in a short series of
representative lives.
The first Unitarian chapel, distinctly known as such, was
founded in Essex Street, London, by Theophilus Lindsey,
in 1774. Lindsey (1723-1808) was a clergyman of the
Church of England, who had on grounds of conscience
given up his living at Catterick, in Yorkshire, five years
before. He was a man of peculiarly winning and gracious
personality; of gentle temper, that might easily have been
spoiled by the indulgence and flattery surrounding him
in youth; a refined scholar and devoted parish minister,
generously and on principle spending his income in chari-
ties among the distressed; holding, against the somber
view of Butler, Paley's cheerful belief in the gladness of
all sentient things, and against the harsh theology of his
time the kindlier hope of a restoration of all souls in the
life to come. As early as 1763, at his transfer to the
highly privileged position in Catterick, he had felt scruples
at renewing subscription to certain of the articles; but
had persuaded himself that his own explanation of them
(a Sabellianism like that of Wallis) might be fairly enough
covered by the required formula. "My great difficulty,
he says, "was on the point of worship [paid to Christ]; in
comparison with this, subscription to the articles, however
momentous in itself, gave me then but little concern.
While here, however, he came under two strong per-
sonal influences which did much to decide his course, One
was from intimate association with an elderly clergyman
(Archdeacon Blackburne, his wife's stepfather), whose
beliefs and scruples were very like his own, who put the
case in this way: "I confess that, with my present views,
I should not be free to sign the articles again. But I did
1 "Apology," p. 20.
""
150
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VII.
;
sign them once in good faith; and, in signing them, I
pledged my life to a work the most sacred and important
that I could conceive. Am I free to abandon that work?
I see how it will end with you. With your convictions
it is only a question of time when you will leave the
church. But for me it is too late to make the change.
On the whole, my conscience keeps me where I am." 1
The other influence was from a close friendship formed
during this time with Joseph Priestley, then a Dissenting
minister at Leeds. Priestley's restless, versatile, and self-
confident intelligence would of itself encourage all liberty
of thinking. But he had had his own hard experience of
ill-paid work and narrow circumstances. He was scrupu-
lous not to urge his friend's conscience beyond its nat-
ural pace.. "Stay where you are," was the burden of his
advice; "your work is a good work, and when the time.
comes that you must change it, the way will be clear to
you."
Jakar
Advice so given, in the guise of prudence, may well
have the effect in a generous mind to strengthen more
than weaken the impulse towards self-sacrifice. Here
Lindsey was helped by the noble spirit of his wife, herself
a clergyman's daughter, of more natural courage and a
more practical temper than his own, along with great
reverence of his character and work, and a tender esteem
of his serener quality, calling him "one of the best, gentlest,
and most indulgent of human beings." She had heartily
shared in his unstinted neighborly charities, and as heartily
stood by him now in whatever loss he might take upon
himself. Seeing the peril of insincerity in all creeds, he
2
1 Rutt's "Life of Priestley," vol. ii., p. 82. (Citation much condensed.)
2 A most interesting sketch of this admirable woman is given by her friend
Mrs. Cappe in the "Monthly Repository" of February, 1812. When, rally-
ing from a painful illness, her husband spoke of the burden upon his mind in
holding his position, her prompt reply was, Then relinquish it: God will
"C
+
LINDSEY IN LONDON.
15 I
H
had taken an active share in the efforts, made among men
of other callings as well as clergymen, to have the terms
of subscription lightened by public law, "traveling up-
wards of two thousand miles in the winter of 1771-72 to
obtain signatures to the petition" for that object. As
these efforts were baffled, he consented to remain only
while some hope remained that the relief might be granted.
When this hope was finally lost, he did not delay to quit
his charge, preaching his farewell words November 28,
1773, having just passed his fiftieth year.
The real interest in Lindsey's withdrawal from the
church is—as that of every religious crisis-less a doctrinal
than a moral or spiritual interest. It brought to the front
the question of conscience in the assent to dogma, which
has been and still is smothered under reasons of a supposed
expediency, that can be cut only by the sharp sword of in-
dividual conviction. To meet this question, we could not
well invent a finer test case than his: the scholarly temper,
the conservative habit, the restraints of friendship, the
love of consecrated forms (for to the end of his life he used
a very moderately revised edition of the church liturgy),
the devotion to professional duty, the kindly surroundings
and modest refinements of life familiar to him up to the
age of fifty; and, as against them all, the abrupt entrance
upon a way of life in which, most literally, "he knew not
whither he went." His former bounties, and his wife's,
had left them in a condition hardly a step from downright
and pressing poverty. Furniture, plate, and books all had
to be sold. Coming to London, they could for some years,
in exchange for their fair country vicarage, occupy only two
small rooms on the ground floor of a tenement in Holborn.
Guid
provide." In an epidemic of smallpox she caused the children of that and
neighboring parishes to be inoculated, attending personally to all the cases
(we are told), of which she lost not one. (This was before vaccination, which
was discovered in 1796.)
1
152
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNITARIANS.
Of all their many church friends, not one appears to have
spoken a word of encouragement or sympathy, or to have
lifted a hand to help.¹
But new friends soon gathered around him, including
such names as Priestley, Franklin, and Price. He busied
himself with his " Apology," and other writings which this
led to; also with a series of studies and discussions of mat-
ters congenial, including a criticism of Gibbon, a history of
Unitarianism, a reply to Robertson, a defense of Priestley.
Tasks like these were spread over a period of nearly twenty
years. But most permanent of his works was the build-
ing of Essex Street Chapel, in 1778, which first organized
Unitarian Dissent as a working force in the religious life of
England. In this he was so well helped by friends and
circumstances as to be both minister and part-proprietor
of the chapel in which he served for fifteen years.
He
definitely relinquished the pulpit at the age of seventy,
refusing ever to occupy it again, though he persevered in
busy activities till near his death, in 1808, at the age of
eighty-five. Three years before he had published "Con-
versations on the Divine Government," perhaps his most
characteristic essay. In it he pleads for the essential
goodness and justice of God as displayed in nature,
and meets, by his ardent faith in a future state of disci-
pline and purification, the question how evil-nay, such
horrors as those of the Canaanitish conquest-may be
permitted or even ordained by a righteous Sovereign of
the world.
d
Th
What had long been pretty widely held as individual
opinion had now found a local habitation and a name.
Within ten years after Lindsey's death "the great body
of those Presbyterian congregations not bound by the terms
of their foundation to orthodox formularies were avowedly
1 "Monthly Repository," December, 1808. (Letter of Mrs. Cappe.)
??
THE EARLIER UNITARIAN DISSENT.
153 ·
Unitarian. In 1813 the old stigma of legal disabilities,
which till then cast a shadow on the name, was blotted out.
In 1825 the several provisional bodies established to spread
and maintain the doctrine were merged in the British and
Foreign Unitarian Association, which has its present head-
quarters in Essex Hall, once Theophilus Lindsey's chapel.
It now represents between three and four hundred congre-
gations, widely various in origin and name, that sustain its
agencies at home and abroad. The only outside opposition
that has seriously embarrassed them was that raised against
their legal right to hold certain endowments or bequests
(especially the "Lady Hewley's Charity" fund) given for
religious as well as charitable uses, or the continued pos-
session of their old meeting-houses.2 The judicial decision
was against both these rights; but the latter was deter-
mined in their favor by the "Dissenters' Chapels Act" of
1844. Since then Unitarians stand on an equal level of
civil rights with every other religious body.
Down to this last date or near it-that is, for a term
of about seventy years-English Unitarianism was well
known by a form of doctrine, a style of Scripture exposi-
tion, and a type of the religious life pretty accurately de-
fined and closely consistent with itself. It grew out of a
movement of thought whose general course has now been
traced, under conditions which became manifest as the
main stream of the Reformation ran out into separate
channels. Another period has followed since, in which
old dogmas, arguments, and lines of sect are of less and
less account. Within the limits thus defined, we have.
now to trace its doctrinal features, and the course of its
1
1 60 Encyclopædia Britannica." For the decline of Presbyterianism at
this date, see "Monthly Repository" of 1813, p. 183; comparing 1809,
P. 486.
2 The points involved are very fully set forth in the "Monthly Reposi-
tory" of July and September, 1817, pp. 430, 505.
a
248
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.
of Uniformity (1662) and that of Toleration (1689)—as illegal, was unable
to reconstitute itself, and left the name "Presbyterian" without any living
significance. Hence it is in Dublin and Munster alone that, through the
influx of Huguenots, Remonstrants and Swiss, who had no love for tests, a
real Presbyterian Church Order constituted itself and remained to our times
(I myself received ordination from it), with absolute freedom from engage-
ment to prescribed theological doctrine. The Irish Nonconformists were in
a better position than the English for giving effect to their need and claim of
religious liberty; for the English Toleration Act of 1689 still required from
them subscription to "the doctrinal articles of the Church of England";1 and
only so far as they managed to evade this in practice (which they extensively
did) had their conscience as teachers free play. The Irish Act of Toleration
followed later (I think in 1719); and when the draft of it was laid before
George I. by his ministers, the king, on coming to the clause requiring this
subscription, ran his pen through it, and said, "You do not know what you
would be at: they shall have their toleration without subscription." And in
this form the act was passed. To the Southern Presbyterians this exemption
was altogether congenial. But the Northerners of the Synod of Ulster, hav-
ing brought over with them all their Scotch habitudes and standards, main-
tained ecclesiastically the dogmatic restrictions from which they were released
legally; and the more progressive spirits among them, who were restive
under the restraint, could emancipate themselves only by secession. Hence
the schism which first broke off, early in the last century, the nonsubscribing
Presbytery of Antrim," and the larger schism which, in 1834, created the
"Remonstrant Synod of Ulster," in both of which, as in Munster, Arianism
and Humanitarianism found acceptance and repose, in fellowship with Trini-
tarianism.
((
This relegation of systematic theology to the Schools, and concentration of
the Church on the Christian graces and life of holiness possible under all
theories alike, was the characteristic principle of fellowship in our churches
here for more than a century before your opening date;2 during the whole
of which Unitarians and Trinitarians found it possible to worship together.
The dissensions which broke out among the dogmatic churches, beginning
with the Church of England, doubtless made this catholic neutralism towards
doctrine more and more difficult to maintain; and many a time worthy neigh-
bors, hitherto accustomed to "go up to the house of God in company," would
be persuaded to look askance at each other as heretic" and "idolater." In
the case of a creed-bound church, such as that to which Lindsey was pledged,
the severance was plainly necessary; and the house of refuge created for him
in Essex Street was naturally dedicated to the particular type of theology
which had suffered exile in his person. This gave it its essence and its name,
and intimated to every Trinitarian that its invitation was not meant for him.
It is not wonderful that the example of the first Unitarian church was fol-
lowed, as you relate, by a gradual extension of the name to congregations
2 Referring to the opening paragraph on p. 149.—ED.
"(
1 See p. 148.
249
historically open to doctrinal variety; for had not the world scorned such
catholicity, and driven its heretics into their sanctuaries alone? What could
they do but accept their expulsion, and set up a separate worship in which
others were not asked to join? You truly say that they yielded to this temp-
tation, and that, within a few years of Lindsey's death, the old Baxterian
congregations, deserted by their Trinitarian elements through the sharpened
controversies of the times, and tired of their unmeaning Presbyterian
name, were caught by the Essex Street example and allowed their inherited
house of God, in forgetfulness of its parentage, to be stamped with the name
of their own personal opinions. True, that is the beginning of the Unita-
rianized life of our churches. But, instead of being a development out of their
original principle, it is a direct contradiction of it and apostasy from it; such
a shifting of their center of gravity as to make their new doctrinal essence
affirm exactly what their old catholic essence denied. I cannot, therefore,
but look on all that follows on your initial date as not our proper church
history, but as an aberration from it.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.
•
"
Instead of troubling you with more words on this matter, I inclose a short
paper which will perhaps better enable you to seize my meaning, and to un-
derstand my lifelong refusal ever to join, as member or minister, a Unitarian
Church. A Unitarian Society, of individuals interested in vindicating the
theological opinions held by them in common, I approve and gladly support,
so long as it limits itself to the exposition of opinion, and refrains from all
ecclesiastical function or pretension to represent churches. Harmony in the
moral and affectional relations of the human spirit and the Divine (and this
it is the object of a church to secure) is possible to all degrees of intelligence
and all stages of culture, and ought never to be represented as conditional
on finally true opinion. But this is no hindrance to an educational zeal for
helping forward, by other agencies, the growth of larger thought and clearer
insight.
""
To me, therefore, it seems that you take up our history just at the point
when we surrendered our birthright, and, quitting the ground of spiritual
religion, were caught up into the competition of orthodoxies and were
content to meet all opponents with the assertion that our orthodoxy was
better than theirs. This is not the gospel which it was given us to preach;
and any future it may have in it belongs, I fear, merely to the history of in-
tellectual opinion without any quickening contact with our organized religious
life.
((
""
I pray you to pardon this tedious letter. It is written under medical pro-
hibition of all use of the pen, during recovery from an attack of illness which
has confined me to my room for the last ten or twelve days. I ventured to
disobey; and though you are the worse for it, I am not.
I have no space
left to thank you for your letter, and to reciprocate its kind wishes. Believe
me, always,
Yours most cordially,
JAMES MARTINEAU.
156
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNITARIANS.
The twelve years from twenty-eight to forty were
divided between the charge of the Dissenting academy at
Warrington and a congregation at Leeds. His work as a
preacher, which he had most at heart, was embarrassed by
an hereditary defect of speech, which was a help to him,
he says, by saving him from any ambition to shine in con-
versation or seek popular applause in the pulpit. While
at Warrington he made the acquaintance of Dr. Price,
whose liberalism in politics he warmly shared; and corre-
sponded with Franklin (then in London), by whose advice
he wrote a rapid but very successful history of discoveries
in electricity. His Arianism had at first been a bar from
the Dissenting pulpit, though he entered on his work at
Leeds an avowed "Socinian "; and here he formed the in-
timate friendship with Lindsey which so strongly influenced.
the life-work of both.
K
p
He had been at twenty a student of Hartley's philoso-
phy, which vividly illustrates by nerve-vibration the associ-
ation of ideas, and so was already led towards that view
of philosophical necessity which remained his belief through
life and deeply tinged the early Unitarian theology. His
Necessarianism was, however, a strictly religious doctrine,
corresponding in a wide way with what we should call a
Moral Order of the universe, or in a narrower way with
what we call Laws of Mind, as distinct from spontaneous
and wanton Freewill on one side, or a purely scientific
Determinism on the other. Moral liberty of choice, under
these conditions, it does not appear that (illogical or not)
he ever let go. But the singular serenity of his faith he
always ascribed to the firm hold which the Necessarian
philosophy had upon his mind. At twenty-five he had
relinquished the Calvinistic doctrine of Atonement; also,
it would seem, that of Election, which his more orthodox.
157
friends vainly tried to convince him was logically a part of
his scheme of a Divine Necessity. His free commenting
on the argument in some of Paul's Epistles had further
brought rebuke from the learned apologist Lardner, with
whom he conferred on the historical evidences of Christi-
anity. These studies, with comparison of the Septuagint
and the Hebrew text, mark his advance in doctrinal and
critical theology up to the age of thirty-five.
G
During a seven years' engagement as librarian and tutor
in the family of Lord Shelburne (1773-80) his reputa-
tion as an experimenter and discoverer in physics reached
its height. Just then, his and Franklin's were the most
shining names in that field of science. His careful study
of certain conditions of organic life in a long series of ex-
periments on air, and the deep sense of the "mystery of
matter" which they induced, had effect in developing
what is commonly called Priestley's materialism.
It was,
indeed, the natural sequence, and simplification, of his
view of philosophical necessity. Like that, he held it as
a strictly religious view. In our day we should state it in
terms of the One Force familiar to the language of recent
science. In substance (as has been remarked) his "mate-
rialism" differs only in terms from Berkeley's "idealism":
each is simply a challenge of the "dualism" taught in our
common speech. That mind and matter are two inde-
pendent substances" in the make-up of the human con-
stitution, which he had thought at first, he dismissed as a
metaphysical fiction. Scientifically, we have to do only
with a single series of facts, in which body and soul are
quite undistinguishable-at least, inseparable; and in this
view he is undisturbed by any consciousness of a dualism
implied in the notion of moral liberty. That view, it is
true, denies the natural immortality of man as a conscious
¢¢
PRIESTLEY'S MATERIALISM.
Cha
1
158
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VII.
CC
person; but he held, with an almost naïve realism, that
man would be raised from the dead by a direct exertion
of the power of God, and thereafter be immortal.
Priestley's residence in Birmingham, from 1780 to
1791, is the happiest and the culminating period of his
intellectual life. In a retrospect written at the age of
fifty-four he tells us something of his mental habits, and
of the almost perfect nervous health which enabled him
to do the work of a long life almost without an hour's
loss from illness or pain or lack of sleep. We learn, too,
of his easy rapidity of touch-he was early a master
of shorthand-such that he dispatched a translation of
Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes within a month; and
that "besides his miscellaneous reading, which was at all
times very great, he read through all the works quoted
in his comparison of the different systems of Grecian
philosophy with Christianity, composed that work, and
transcribed the whole of it, in less than three months!"
And we see him as a lecturer, "a man of about middling
stature, slenderly made, remarkably placid, modest, and
courteous, pouring out with the simplicity of a child the
great stores of his most capacious mind."
He had expressed in a political essay some approval of
the republican theory of government (though wholly
loyal to his own), and had admitted the right of revolution
under a desperate tyranny. This, in the temper of that
day, was enough to confound him with the French revo-
lutionary madness. In May, 1791, came an outburst of
blind mob fury sharpened by ecclesiastical bigotry and
hate. His chapel was burned. His house, which the
mob tried to set on fire by sparks from his own electrical
machine, was wrecked. His furniture, library, and "the
most truly valuable and useful apparatus of philosophical
1 Huxley's "Address at Birmingham in 1891," p. 18.
T
PRIESTLEY IN AMERICA; THOMAS BELSHAM. 159
instruments," he says, "that perhaps any individual in this
or any other country was ever possessed of," were totally
destroyed. The money loss he reckoned at more than
$150,000, of which a small part was afterwards recovered.
His life was saved by flight to London, with his wife,
traveling painfully by night. All chances of occupation
were hazardous while the reactionary fury lasted. And
so, in 1794, at the age of sixty-one, relinquishing a modest
lectureship at Hackney, he removed with his family to
America. His latter days were spent in Northumber-
land, Pa., in the hope that his children might grow up near
a projected liberty-loving colony, which never came to
birth; and here he died in 1804. "His theological assail-
ants in England had echoed, perhaps prompted, the vilest
execrations of the Birmingham mob. Edmund Burke,
with superfluous disdain, refused to answer or even to
notice an appeal for justice in behalf of this ecclesiastical
outlaw. At a local gathering of clergy (we are told) one
man said that he would gladly set the torch with his own
hand to a pile of Priestley's writings, and burn the author
alive with them; and the rest, applauding, declared them-
selves ready to do the same. Such was the insolence of
theologic hate in England a hundred years ago!"!
The immediate successor of Priestley in his work at
Hackney was Thomas Belsham (1750-1829), who also
followed Lindsey in Essex Street a few years later, and
thus becomes a link between the past and the living gen-
eration. Born and bred among the orthodox Dissenters,
he was the first of that body to resign a position of trust
and influence to join the Unitarians, at a time when, as he
said, "a Socinian is still a sort of monster in the world."
He did this not under any pressure that especially galled
his conscience, since the conditions of his office as head of
1 From an address delivered in Philadelphia in February, 1886.
ww
160
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VII.
a Dissenting academy left him very free; nor yet with a
glad courage, since he was of somber temperament, weighed
with the burden of the flesh, distrustful of himself, near
the age of forty, looking only to obscure quiet with a pit-
tance in some country town. It was sheer dogged British
honesty of conviction. He tells in his "Calm Inquiry
the method he took with his pupils in their study of the
Bible: that they should copy out and classify the texts
that made for or against the doctrine under discussion ;
and how, to his own great surprise, and reluctantly, he
found himself slowly drawn over to the new belief, and he
could no longer serve with a neutral or divided mind.
"}
<<
This sturdy honesty, with much industry and a fair
amount of learning, made Mr. Belsham's strength and
gave him a certain eminence among his fellows. More
than most of them, he was known as a controversial advo-
cate of the Unitarian doctrine; more than most of them,
he inclined to rationalize it. Some among them were
Arians," holding that Christ in person was agent of the
Almighty in creating the universe. Others, still calling
themselves Arians, held that he may be regarded as the
Maker of the earth, and possibly of the entire solar system.
Others ascribed to him only a shadowy and (so to speak)
official preëxistence. But all such, he thought, could not
be honestly regarded as Unitarians, holding as he did “the
simple and proper humanity of Christ." There was in his
mind, apparently, a reaction from the anxious and brood-
ing introspection that meets us in the religious journal he
scrupulously kept in his earlier years. The "indwelling "
scheme by which Doddridge had disguised from himself
his own lapses from orthodoxy repelled the more blunt and
candid mind of Belsham. He followed stiffly the lead of
his slowly maturing conviction as far as his loyalty to the
letter of the Bible would allow. He was much troubled,
THOMAS BELSHAM; LANT CARPpenter.
161
on the other part, by the increasing tendency of his time
to "infidelity," or open rationalism. His best known lit-
erary work was done as chief editor of the "Improved Ver-
sion of the New Testament," which exhibits and defends
the Unitarian criticism of its day; and in a translation
with exposition of Paul's Epistles, which he holds to be
only in small part doctrinal, mostly for practical teaching
and edification. Of far narrower range than Priestley,
he adopted in general the same views, including, with
some demur, that of philosophical necessity, which he ex-
presses in the proposition that all events are brought to
pass by "one governing Will." His name is held, per-
haps not quite justly, to stand for that highly respectable
but frigid and formal piety which Unitarianism in his day
was commonly supposed to be.
That this estimate of it was narrow and unjust we have
the best proof possible in the honored and beloved name
of Lant Carpenter (1780-1840), whose life of sixty years
brings to a fit close this period of our history. Unlike all
the others who have been named, he was born and edu-
cated among influences purely Unitarian. Owing to his
father's failure in business, he was adopted by a mater-
nal relative, a liberal Dissenter of Kidderminster, in whose
household a native sweetness and vivacity of temper won
to him warm affection from the beginning. The trait
which most distinguished him through life was a certain
moral genius in the work of education, with an eager and
painstaking fidelity that gave him a singular influence
with the young. Among the memories of his childhood,
1
BA
1 Unitarians generally have been made somehow responsible for this ver-
sion, with which they appear, on the contrary, to have been " egregiously
disappointed" (see "Monthly Repository" for December, 1808). It was
blamed for taking as a basis, instead of Wakefield's, Archbishop Newcome's
translation, which follows the text of Griesbach, and then departing from that
text in numerous cases, of which a list is given in the "Repository." It soon
met the fate of other revised versions, falling completely into disuse.
162
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNITARIANS.
4
t
it is told that, when a boy of about eleven, wishing to give
daily lessons to a class of his Sunday-school pupils,' he
would meet them-as the only hour of the day when they
had not to work for their living-at four in the morning,
summer and winter-" in summer under a mulberry tree,
at other times in a little summer-house without fire "-giv-
ing them "their hour's instruction in writing, arithmetic,
and other branches of useful knowledge." That sacred
passion of apostleship remained with him to the last, and
very largely aided to shape his work in life.
Dr. Carpenter¹ accepted in its best religious sense and
with great ardor of conviction the doctrine in which he
had been taught. It does not appear that through life he
added anything to it or took anything away from it. He
gave to it, simply, the great weight of his admirable ex-
ample, with the defense of a spirited, elaborate, and (to
him) somewhat costly reply to a scornful attack made by
Bishop Magee in his treatise on the Atonement. In his
college days, at the age of twenty-one, he had gone stu-
diously and (as he deemed) thoroughly over the ground of
the Christian evidences as exhibited by Lardner and Paley;
and the clear conviction to which he came then, he never
wavered in. This belief of his, the Unitarianism of that
day, was scrupulously defined against every form of trin-
itarian doctrine on one side, and as scrupulously guarded
against any departure from the letter of the Bible on
the other, following a straight and narrow path of literal
interpretation. The New Testament, in the improved.
text and version, was taken, uncritically, as of absolute and
final authority. This was no mere formal postulate of a
school in theology. In a private letter, written past middle
life to a grown-up daughter, he urges that "the Scriptures.
J
S
1 He received at the age of twenty-six the honorary degree of LL.D. from
the University of Glasgow, where he had been a student of distinction.
3
บ
163
are our only guide." To this literalism appears a single
qualification: that (on the ground of a doubt whether the
first two chapters of the Testament make part of the gospel
as originally written) the story of the birth of Jesus is in-
terpreted as a natural event,. though revealed in a halo of
mystery and miracle. This view is taken in his "Harmony
of the Gospels," the maturest labor of his life.
The double burden of a large family school with his im-
portant parish charge in Bristol, added to public respon-
sibilities which he could not avoid, was slowly-nay,
swiftly undermining his life. While his father lived to
ninety-five, he was an old man at fifty. To secure time
for the tasks he had most at heart, he would go to his
study at four o'clock in the morning, especially in winter
when he enjoyed the quiet most, and appear at breakfast
with a radiant face, saying, "I have been with our Lord
in Galilee this morning!" But then came the unescapable
burden of the day's instruction, and the weight of other
cafes; for he was a most faithful and tender pastor, and
one of the most copious of correspondents. It was inevitable
that his strength should break down, once and again, in
sickness threatening to be fatal. As he approached his
sixtieth year, the end of his working day seemed to have
come. His last journey was undertaken to secure a year
of rest in southern Europe. Sailing from Naples in a
coasting steamer, he was washed or fell overboard in a
storm at night, two months before he reached the age of
sixty.
LANT CARPENTER.
G
The events of the long Continental struggle (1793–1815),
with the changes that slowly came about in the condition
of the laboring classes, had powerfully turned the religious
minds of England to political and social questions. This
influence was, perhaps, most strongly felt among the
Nonconformists, and of these, chiefly among the most
1
164
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VII.
liberal. We have seen how Priestley and Price had been
identified with the revolutionary party. At a later day,
the correspondence both of Belsham and of Dr. Carpenter
often shows the close relations they were drawn into with
leading statesmen by the common interest in liberal poli-
tics. This interest was much quickened by the steps taken
in 1813 to relieve Unitarians from the legal disabilities
they still lay under. Then, having gained this relief, they
were generously eager to aid in the measures that brought
about the Catholic emancipation of 1829.. In these efforts,
in the work of general education, in the abolition of such
oppressive burdens as the window tax and the restrictions.
upon labor-union, in negro emancipation, in temperance
legislation, and the repeal of the scandalous "Contagious-
Diseases Act," the names of leading Unitarians have been
honorably prominent. Among the terrors of the riot in
Bristol that grew from the reactionary fury against the
Reform Act of 1832, Dr. Carpenter appears conspicuous.
as advocate, witness, or narrator,-not going out of his
professional sphere, but listened to in it with deep respect,
and carrying weight in high political circles by the simple
authority of his name. The religious body he was con-
nected with now felt itself respected and influential, nu-
merous enough to assure itself of a rapid growth and a
power for righteousness which it has never quite reached;
and of a hold upon the future, as a strong and united
body, which at this day it can scarce venture any longer
to look forward to.
South
Stat
What honorable rank it had won in the world of letters
is best seen in such names as those of William Roscoe,
Samuel T. Coleridge, John Bowring, and a few others,
brilliant pioneers of a more brilliant day that has followed.
How well Dr. Carpenter's own work has been carried on
by his children, especially in the contributions of Dr.
165
William B. Carpenter to scientific ethics, and of Mary
The
Carpenter in practical philanthropy, is well known.
most familiar type of the thought and life associated with
Unitarian forms of piety is perhaps to be found in a group
of highly cultivated women, whose names have been house-
hold words to more than one generation: Catherine Cappe,
Helen Maria Williams, Lucy Aikin, Anna Lætitia Bar-
bauld, Maria Edgeworth, Joanna Baillie, Harriet Marti-
neau, Sarah Flower Adams. Their form of piety has
more of the serenity, the cheerful gravity, and the eth-
ical glow of the religious life than of its depth, passion-
ate contrition, or ecstatic rapture; and it is more readily
associated with household affections, practical moralities,
and the plain duties of every day, than with the great
heroic enterprises of Christian faith. There was thus
danger in it of a narrowing, even hardening tendency, of
which the finest spirits would be soonest aware.
S
Yet this peril, even if it were real, has been much ex-
aggerated in unfriendly judgments. In the words of a
near and intelligent student of the religious movement we
have traced, "In spite of the apparent materialism which
made the editors of a Warrington hymn-book (some-
where in the twenties) boast of having avoided the term
soul, as a word calculated to rouse unpleasant associations,
there was a deep and earnest and unpretending piety.
There was, however," he continues, "a great difference in
denominational zeal between those who had, as descend-
ants of the carly English Presbyterians, gradually become
Unitarians, and those who-like Lindsey and Belsham
and Aspland-came over from the Church or the Calvin-
istic Nonconformists. The latter initiated the movement
for the Unitarian name; they first designated chapels as
Unitarian; they began to institute 'closed trusts,' which
were opposed to the Presbyterian principle, and have
LATER ENGLISH UNITARIANS.
Van
Kevin
$
166
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNITARIANS.
袋
​been a trouble ever since. The general attitude of non-
subscribing Presbyterians is sketched by the Rev. J. J.
Tayler in his 'Retrospect of the Religious Life of Eng-
land'; and some important applications of their princi-
ples are made by Dr. Martineau in his letters to Mr. Mac-
donald." 1
The tendency to a stricter denominationalism, with per-
haps a too easy self-content, was suddenly broken near the
end of the period we have now surveyed. A challenge
wonderfully different in tone was sounded; an intellectual
horizon was opened up vastly broader than anything we
have thus far found. Early in the year 1836 was pub-
lished "The Rationale of Religious Inquiry," a thin volume
of six lectures by James Martineau. This book, little but
precious, struck the keynote of the higher criticism that
has been followed out since in many lines of thought.
The writer was a young preacher, then settled in Liver-
pool, a man of thirty-one, educated first for the profession
of civil engineering, who had come with singular intellectual
freshness, wealth, and courage into the field of theology;
who had relinquished a Dublin pulpit, choosing at twenty-
six the independence of a laborious and doubtful self-sup-
port before the government grant his congregation were
entitled to receive; whose riper philosophical studies had
led him away from the conventional Necessarianism of the
English Unitarians of that day,-though in retracting that
earlier view he gave to it (in the "Liverpool Lectures
of 1839) probably the finest literary exposition it has ever
had, in an argument on Moral Evil.
})
Those who are old enough to have caught the first tones
of that new voice will remember how it was instantly
recognized as the voice of an intellectual leader, and with
what interest every step has been watched in the long
1 Reprinted in "Essays, Reviews, etc.," vol. ii., pp. 371, 381.
S
q
167
and brilliant career that has followed. The series covers
fifty-eight years of successive publications, each as fresh, as
vigorous, and as independent as the first.
Taking up the "Rationale" at this day, we note that it
accepts, and puts forward with sharp relief, the then ac-
cepted division-line of Christian and Deist: whether or
not Christianity is to be received as a dispensation of mir-
acle. In the school which Dr. Martineau represents, this
division-line has been so long left behind as to have been
for more than forty years lost quite out of sight: this was
shown, in 1850, by the generous and cordial recognition
he gave to Theodore Parker as a Christian thinker. With
an exaltation of the person of Christ very rare in so keen
a critic, he maintains in 1853, against Professor Newman,
that "we rest our Christianity on that moral perfection.
of Jesus which he arraigns"; while in 1890, denying that
Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, he says, simply, that "in
the sphere of Divine things, the requirement is that he be
better" than we, and "make more approach to the supreme
Perfection." During a residence in Germany in 1848-49,
he became a master in the fields of modern philosophy
and criticism, developing a marked increase in breadth
and force. A series of critical papers of extraordinary
brilliancy and power-of which we may here note those
on the Creed and the Ethics of Christendom-have cov-
ered most fields of modern philosophical inquiry. His
contributions to purely religious thought, of profoundest
and probably most lasting value, have appeared in dis-
courses entitled "Endeavours after the Christian Life" and
"Hours of Thought," which in their quality of intellectual
exposition of the deeper religious experience may almost
be said to constitute a class by themselves. What is rarest,
even in so extended a career, is to have had the opportu-
1 " Essays," etc., vol. iii., p. 55; "Seat of Authority," p. 651.
JAMES MARTINEAU.
P
-
Stad
168
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VII.
nity, when already far past eighty, to sum up its ripest
fruits in the five large octavo volumes known as "Types
of Ethical Theory," "A Study of Religion," and "The
Seat of Authority in Religion," together with the four
of reprinted "Essays, Reviews, and Addresses," which
gather up the most significant of his earlier labors, scat-
tered through half a lifetime.
1
It is happily too soon to survey Dr. Martineau's life-
work as a whole, or to pass a critical judgment upon it.
For our present purpose, it is enough to say that it is by
far the most rich and important systematic contribution
ever made by a single hand to the literature of thought
in the religious body with which he has been associated.
M'ore, too, than any other of its intellectual leaders, he
has been impatient of the limitations that seem to be
thrown about it by a name taken from the lists of contro-
versial theology, refusing to join publicly in the work of
a "Unitarian" organization, or to contribute a paper to a
"Unitarian" review. Rather, he would recall and claim
for that body the historic title "Presbyterian," carefully
guarding it from being either a doctrinal sect on the one
hand, or on the other a loose aggregate of ill-trained pop-
ular religionists. His sympathies are widely apart from
the schemes that seek for it a greater denominational.
vigor, and, possibly, a wider field of real service and influ-
Standing aside from all such efforts, he has been
its intellectual guide and instructor as no other man has
been or could be. While his near associates have been men
-like John James Tayler and James Drummond-of
marked learning and ability, his name alone adequately
represents the course the higher liberal thought has taken,
whether by what he has adhered to or by what he has
dissented from.
ence.
1 Written in the summer of 1893.
www
4
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
169
In what form English Unitarianism will survive changes
so radical, whether as an organized body or as an intel-
lectual force, it is too soon to forecast. We have already
seen those features of it which have perceptibly influenced
the parallel development in America. In respect of num-
bers, it does not greatly vary from what it was half a cent-
ury ago, counting, in 1893, 344 congregations and 356
ministers. Its two strong points, as a healthy living force,
are: that its ablest men heartily accept the results of scien-
tific investigation in physics, history, or criticism, and that
the body of it is pervaded by a deep and powerful sym-
pathy with what is best in the political and social aspira-
tion of the day, which is now perhaps the most important
single factor in British politics. But whether these two
tend together as a source of strength to the Unitarian
body, as such, is open to question. "The critical move-
ment," again to copy from the writer before quoted, "is
wholly opposed to denominationalism and ecclesiastical
zeal. It necessarily fosters Broad Church views of the
inadequacy of all formulæ, of the necessity of compromise
in worship, and the rest. Hence the militant Unitarians
do not care at all for historic and critical inquiries, and
they profoundly mistrust all philosophy. On the other
hand, the ethical sentiment, being precisely what links us
to other bodies by a common philanthropy, is also un-
favorable to the maintenance of narrow lines of ecclesias-
tical organization. It pleads for union and coöperation
with other bodies to the utmost possible extent; it sinks
all differences of creed or church life, if given moral ends
can be secured." Under such conditions the body must.
survive, if at all, not as an independent force, but as a
single battalion, serving under its special discipline, in an
immensely greater host. But this is prophecy, not history.
"
}
V
CHAPTER VIII.
ANTECEDENTS IN NEW ENGLAND.
WHAT is called the Unitarian movement in New Eng-
land belongs, strictly, to the last century and a half, since
the Great Awakening of 1735. But to explain the direction.
and character taken by this current of religious thought,
it is necessary to look back for a moment to the first
founding of the colonies, and to note, in particular, the
non-dogmatic forms of covenant under which their earlier .
churches were gathered. Of these forms it will be suffi-
cient here to copy three: those, namely, of the First
Church in Plymouth (1620), the First Church in Salem
(1629), and the First Church in Boston (1630). These
three churches are all now known as Unitarian, and each
exists at this day under its original covenant. That in
Plymouth, it is true, was revised in 1676; but this was
done without changing in the least its character or sub-
stance.
In Bradford's "History" (p. 6) it is related that the
Pilgrims at Plymouth "as the Lord's free people joyned
them selves into a church estate, in the fellowship of the
gospell, to walke in all [God's] wayes made known or to
be made known unto them, according to their best endeav-
our, whatever it should cost them." In the later revision.
the covenant is given thus: "We do hereby solemnly and
religiously, as in his most holy presence, avouch the Lord
Jehovah, the only true God, to be our God and the God
of ours; and do promise and bind ourselves to walk in all
170
J
P
Babad
EARLY COVENANTS.
171
our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all
sincere conformity to his holy ordinances, and in mutual
love and watchfulness over one another, depending wholly
upon the Lord our God to enable us by his grace here-
unto."
Jag
That of the church in Salem reads: "We covenant with
the Lord and with one another, and doe bynd our selves
in ye presence of God, to walke together in all his waies,
according as he is pleased to reveale himself unto us in his
Blessed word of truth." In the additions of 1636, which
follow, the "waies" of practical piety are defined at some
length, without the insertion of a single point of contro-
verted doctrine.¹
>>
B
The First Church in Boston declares, after a brief pre-
amble, as follows: "We . . . do hereby solemnly and re-
ligiously promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our
ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere.
conformity to [Christ's] holy ordinances, and in mutual
love and respect each to other, so near as God shall give
us grace. At the first signing, this covenant bore only
the four names of John Winthrop, Thomas Dudley, Isaac
Johnson, and John Wilson, the three leading laymen of
the colony, and its first minister.
These earliest documents show, in the first place, why
it was that New England Unitarianism was not (like the
English) a secession, but an offshoot or development, from
the original Congregational order: doctrinal dissent, or
nonconformity, was never called for; and secondly, how
all agree in recognizing, as the tribunal of last appeal, not
church authority, or any form of creed, but the direct
guidance of the Spirit of Truth present to the individual
1 Hurd's "History of Essex County." See especially the discussion as
to what constituted the original covenant, and whether it was accompanied
by a confession of belief, as presented by Rev. E. B. Willson, pp. 24-27.
}
2
172
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
mind, which is ever the invitation to free thought and the
motive of doctrinal advance. These points are the rather
to be noted, because "to accept the covenant" was the
formal act essential to full citizenship, as well as to mem-
bership in the church. The covenant, accordingly, and
not a point of speculative doctrine, furnished the question.
at issue in the sharp discussion-that on the "Half-way
Covenant"--which opened the second era of colonial life
in 1662.1 This was the first intrusion of the modern secu-
lar spirit into the conduct of the colonial church, and was
compelled upon it by the political circumstances of the
Restoration.
We understand, of course, that there was a body of
doctrine generally if not universally received among the
colonial churches. This, indeed, has made the standard
of a very rigid orthodoxy, by which all departures from it
have been judged, quite down to our own day. Colonial
laws to restrain "heresy," passed in 1646 and in 1697,
were first formally abolished by the Bill of Rights in the
Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. The exaggerated
doctrine of the Free Spirit, proclaimed by Ann Hutchin-
son in 1634, held the colony distracted till her cruel expul-
sion two years later. About 1650 William Pynchon pub-
lished "The Meritorious Price of Man's Redemption," a
treatise "vindicating the sufferings and sacrifice of Christ
from that most dangerous Scriptureless tenent, that is held
forth by Mr. Norton, of New England, in his book of
Ty
"
1 The essential provision of the " Half-way Covenant was that children
of persons baptized, though unregenerate, may be baptized,
"their parents
owning the covenant." Its terms are stated in "The Spirit of the Pilgrims
to be these: (1) the duty of all baptized persons to own the covenant,
whether or not formally admitted to the church; (2) in case of their hesitation
or indifference, the church should summon them to do it; (3) if they still
neglect, they are to receive the formal censure of the church; (4) if they are
of sober and reputable life, though not church-members, their children may
be baptized.
"1
"
1"
173
Christ's Sufferings,' affirming that he suffered the es-
sential torments of hell and the second death from God's
immediate vindicative wrath"; asserting, on the contrary
(p. 309), that his death was a priestly act, in which he
offered up his own life as ransom for the guilty. For this
advance upon the somber theology of our fathers, the book
was burned, and its author was punished by a fine of a
hundred pounds.
1
The constitution and polity of the colonial churches had
been carefully defined in the "Cambridge Platform" of 1648,
as a measure of defense against the Presbyterian party
hitherto dominant in the Long Parliament. Their doc-
trinal standard was of far later date; it was not formally
announced till 1680. In that year a synod of elders and
delegates, representing five New England colonies, was
held in Boston, which drafted a "Confession of Faith" in
thirty-two chapters, copied in substance from that of the
Westminster Assembly, as abridged by the Independents.
in the "Savoy Confession" of 1658. This declaration
could not, however, be imposed as a creed upon the
churches, which simply adopted such portions of it as they
thought fit into their several covenants. The theory of
independency might not be denied. As a consequence of
the restoration of Charles II., the colonies had been forced
to admit to equal citizenship, and hence as qualified for
church communion, "all persons orthodox in their opin-
ions and not vitious in their lives." From this came the
lax terms of membership in the "Half-way Covenant" of
1662, and opening of church doors to the unregenerate.
From this, again, arose the compromising theory that the
Lord's Supper is of itself a "converting ordinance," and
that hence "profane persons ought to be admitted to
(
CONFESSION OF 1680.
1 Given in Mather's "Magnalia," vol. ii., pp. 157-178. See "The Pan-
oplist," vol. iii., p. 13.
174
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
partake of it." This theory was vigorously attacked by
Increase Mather, in a small volume directed against Solo-
mon Stoddard; and again at a synod in 1689, where he
remonstrated against "men of known unregeneracy shar-
ing in the tremendous mysteries" of that sacramental act.
The effect most dreaded at this period would appear to
have been less the spread of doctrinal heresy than the
secularizing of church life. "Doth not a careless, remiss,
flat, dry, cold, dead frame of spirit grow upon us secretly,
strongly, prodigiously?" so asks, sadly, a minister of the
elder time, in 1669. Royal authority was unfriendly to
the old ecclesiastical rule. Conditions of social life were
altered from the former rude simplicity. Natural leaders.
in the young State-jurists, publicists, or men of letters-
cared more for political rights than for church theology.
Against this danger-illustrated at all points in the
remarkable career of John Wise, "Father of American
democracy" (1652-1725)—the barrier of a stricter eccle-
siasticism was set up. In 1700 the plan of a "national
church" was urged, to confirm the shaken authority. In
1705 a system of "associations" and "standing councils" was
adopted. In 1708 the "Saybrook Platform" established
in Connecticut a method of "Consociation," or local pres-
bytery, which never got footing beyond the boundaries of
that province. An ecclesiastical machinery of some little.
dignity and strength was thus constructed, which held in
moderate check the laxness of Independency, and was in
a good number of cases effective in setting bounds to the
Boston liberal theology of a later day.
Meanwhile, the change of the colonial charter in 1692
had brought in, along with royal governors and new dis-
tinctions of rank, increased circulation of English books.
The discussions of Sherlock, South, Whiston, Clarke, and
others came to be widely known. Among the rest, writ-
را
UNITARIANS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 175
ings of Thomas Emlyn, the amiable witness and sufferer
of that day for the Unitarian faith, had a large currency
and a special influence. Dr. Sprague, in his "Annals of
the American Pulpit," records the lives of forty-nine.
ministers of known Unitarian belief settled in Congrega-
tional churches during the eighteenth century. The list
begins with the seventy years' pastorate (1717-87) of the
excellent and eccentric Dr. Ebenezer Gay, of Hingham,
who has been called "the Father of American Unita-
rianism "a graduate at eighteen of Harvard College,
who received its doctor's degree at eighty-nine, and died
in his ninety-second year; and includes the name of
James Freeman, the terms of whose settlement at King's
Chapel, in 1785, virtually transferred that noble foundation
from the Episcopal to the Congregational body. To these
we should add the name of Lemuel Briant, minister of
Braintree from 1747 to 1752, citing the evidence of the
elder President Adams, who, "discussing in 1815 the
principles of the new departure, found in them nothing
that was not familiarly known to him, and bore testimony
to the fact that sixty-five years before, Lemuel Briant was
a Unitarian." It may be noted, however, that the con-
troversy at that day turned chiefly on the Atonement and
the conditions of the moral life, and so was known as
"Arminian," not specially as antitrinitarian.
1
These evidences of a great latitude of opinion, tolerated
and allowed for without any break in the Congregational
order, will be easily understood from what has been said.
of the character of the church covenants. It had much to
do, besides, with the deepening interest in political affairs,
as we approach the period of open conflict with the mother-
country. Indeed, it might almost be said that every man
1 <<
Three Episodes in the History of Massachusetts," by Charles F,
Adams, p. 643.
176
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VIII.
of very wide and strong influence in public life (with the
possible exception of Samuel Adams, "last of the Puri-
tans")—from Benjamin Franklin, the friend of Lindsey
and Priestley, to Thomas Jefferson, whom his biographer
Randall calls a Unitarian in belief-was a confirmed disbe-
liever in the Puritan theology; while, unconscious of any
jealousy, the Congregational ministry had its full share in
rousing and guiding the patriot temper of the day.
1
((
Naturally, the growing laxity of opinion did not come
to pass without sharp remonstrance from the more zealous
preachers of the elder creed. Thus we hear, in 1719, of
an inclination to the abominable errors of Arius." Cot-
ton Mather's convention sermon in 1722 complains that
men "do not preach much about the person of Christ, after
the manner," he remarks, "of Church-of-England men";
while in 1726 William Williams, in less polemic mood,
would subordinate controversy "to set forth the glory of
Christ, . . . the main and essential part of our work."
Jonathan Edwards, at Northampton in 1734, is uneasy at
symptoms of " Arminianism," which he thinks to betoken
a cold and neutral temper in the religious life. And the
next year, under his powerful impulse, occurs the wonder-
ful phenomenon of "the Great Awakening," with extrava-
gance of revivals that followed, and the "strange transports
of mechanical devotions," which are generally held, by the
reaction they invited, to have led the way to the liberal
theology that followed.
How rapid this counter-movement was, we find evidence
in the three visits of George Whitefield to Boston, in 1740,
in 1744, and in 1754. In the first, fresh as he was from
his enthusiasm in the great work of Jonathan Edwards, he
}
-
T
1 Some of the details which follow are taken from an extended article by
Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D. (200 pages of double columns) in the
Historical
Magazine" for April, 1871.
:
→
WHITEFIELD AND CHAUNCY; THE MAYHEWS. 177
seemed to carry all before him, and gave his farewell dis-
course on Boston Common to a crowd of twenty thousand
eager listeners. In the second, the scene is already
changed. Edwards's "Thoughts" and Chauncy's "Sea-
sonable Thoughts" on the great revival have intervened.
Criticism is in the ascendant. A demand for "discipline "
has displaced the heated enthusiasm. The reaction has
now set in, which six years later drove Edwards from his
home in Northampton to his Stockbridge exile among the
Indians. At his third visit, in 1754, Whitefield finds no
response in Boston. A new gospel of reason has been for
eight years installed in the West Church pulpit by May-
hew, the boldest preacher of his day. The spirit of the
time is "hostility to creeds." The cry of "Arminian,'
"Socinian," "Antinomian," has been heard without alarm.
The writings of Thomas Emlyn are diligently studied.
We have in full view that "weakness of the pulpit" (with
the notable exception of Mayhew) which has been recorded
as one symptom of the coming political revolution. The
New England clergy, as Whitefield in his wrath had can-
didly said of them, were "dumb dogs, half devils and half
beasts, unconverted, spiritually blind, and leading their
people to hell!"
Charles Chauncy, minister of the First Church in Boston
for sixty years, till his death, in 1787-a scholar, an ardent
patriot, a political reformer, and a ready controversialist-
was eminently the intellectual leader at this period in the
new advance towards a rational theology. But its most
effective popular champion was Jonathan Mayhew, pastor
of the West Church from 1747 till his early death, in 1766.
He was born in 1720, a child of brave descent.
His an-
cestors for four generations had been rulers, teachers, and
civilizers among the Indians. The first, Thomas Mayhew
(1592-1682), a citizen of Watertown, Mass., had received
→
MA
178
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VIII.
|
a grant of the island of Martha's Vineyard, where he
planted a colony at Edgarton, at the age of fifty-five, tak-
ing with him his son Thomas, a zealous preacher, as mis-.
sionary among the native tribes. Ten years later, at the
age of thirty-six, this son-a beloved apostle, familiar with
the dialects of his hearers-was lost at sea, while on his
way to plead their spiritual needs in London; and a few
years later the father, already revered by the savages as a
just magistrate and true friend, devoted himself at seventy
to carrying on his son's work as preacher of the gospel,
sometimes walking as much as twenty miles in a day to
fulfill his service. Though twenty-fold the number of the
whites upon the island, the Indians of his charge could
never be drawn to take part in the somber horror of King
Philip's War; and the old man died in peace, lacking six
days only of ninety years. The good work was continued
by his grandson John, and then by Experience, father of
the more eloquent and famous Jonathan.
Coming fresh from such a field, the younger Mayhew
brought with him a spirit of almost haughty independence,
which was quickly manifest. From the outset he pro-
fessed the right and duty of private judgment. At his
settlement in Boston the more cautious of the clergy held
aloof, and he was installed by a council gathered from
country parishes. He would not follow the customary
practice of seeking membership in the Boston Association
of Ministers, and never took part in the Thursday Lecture,
but established a more attractive weekly series of his own.
It is significant that his doctor's degree came to him from
Aberdeen. He was, it is said, "the first clergyman in
New England who expressly and openly opposed the
school doctrine of the Trinity." This doctrine he did not
scruple even to ridicule, by applying the phrases of the
creed to an imaginary deification of the Virgin Mary.
Jag
179
Already when a student at college he had been revolted
by the extravagances of a revival. Under the influence
(it is said) of Dr. Gay, of Hingham, he had then chosen
the cooler way of reason. Thus he rejected the doctrine
of "irresistible grace"; he doubted the entire creed of
orthodoxy; he held the doctrine of free will, taking the
Arminian part in the burning controversy of the day.
Creed-making" he held in scorn. A vicarious atone-
ment and an imputed righteousness he vehemently denied.
Persecution for opinion's sake he hated. "A burning
fagot," he said, "has no tendency to illuminate the under-
standing;" in the popular way of revivals " "men are con-
verted-only out of their own wits; . . . to attempt to
dragoon men into sound orthodox Christians is as unnat-
ural as to attempt to dragoon them into. good poets,
physicians, or mathematicians." Christianity, according
to him, is not a scheme of salvation, to be defined by
dogma, but "the art of living virtuously and piously."
These phrases give hint of a temper sometimes hasty
and disdainful, but in the main nobly independent. It is
no wonder that his gospel of freedom soon ran out in the
line of political rights and duties, or that he became the
near friend and adviser of such ardent patriots as Samuel
Adams, James Otis, and other pre-revolutionary leaders.
Zeal for theological controversy gave way, step by step,
before interest in public events. Among the topics of dis-
course which he carried into the pulpit are such as these:
the death and character of Frederick, Prince of Wales; the
anniversary of the beheading of Charles I., which he takes
as occasion for a plea against ecclesiastical apologies for
despotism; the taking of Quebec; the accession of George
III. The discussion that best shows his vigor of attack
and retort was called out by an effort made by certain
Episcopalian ministers to get Episcopacy recognized as an
66
JONATHAN MAYHEW.
A
180
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
established religion in the colonies. This had led to the
great abuse (as he charged it) of drawing upon missionary
funds to maintain clergymen of that persuasion in the
larger towns, already well provided with Christian teachers,
where they found no hearing, instead of sending them to
remoter settlements, where they were really wanted. The
most pungent passage in his attack is a bit of sarcasm,
almost fierce, on the religious and political antecedents of
Secker, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had incautiously
meddled in the debate. A personal controversy with Mr.
Cleaveland, of Ipswich, in which he resents the charge of
a Restorationist heresy in the phrase that punishment may
be "for the good of the offender," is less creditable to his
judgment or temper. Dying at the age of forty-six, a
little before the crisis of the political revolution which his
impetuous spirit hailed in advance, he left a fame far wider
and more enduring than any of his associates.
Mayhew's successor in the West Church, Simeon How-
ard (1767-1804), continued the line of dissent from the
accepted creed, being esteemed an Arian. He was a man
of modest, serious, and even temper, in character generous
and upright, highly esteemed for scholarship, and as a
pastor greatly loved. In his time that church was nearly
wrecked by the storm of the Revolution. While he took
refuge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, "the house he preached.
in was turned into a barrack, and his congregation dis-
persed in every direction." Those were not days of
theological interest or advance. "The divinity of Christ,"
complained Andrew Croswell, speaking at that time, "is
an antiquated doctrine, very unfashionable and unmodish."
"Every Christian," responded Tucker of Newbury, in
1768, "has and must have a right to judge for himself of
the true sense and meaning of all gospel truths." Presi-
dent Locke, of Harvard College, insisted in 1772 that
G
Jag
181
"foreign errors are to be met by argument alone, not by
crowding down creeds and confessions upon pain of eternal
punishment." The climax of this period of indifferentism
was reached in the presidency of Joseph Willard (1781-
1804), an Arminian in creed, who corresponded with
friends of Voltaire in France as well as Priestley and Price
in England, in whose time it was a common saying that
"the Boston ministers have agreed to differ." At the
end of the century we are told: "It is confidently believed
that there was not a strict trinitarian clergyman of the
Congregational order in Boston."
LIBERALS IN SALEM.
Madaga
Nor was this temper of mind confined to professed
theologians. Among the anecdotes of the revolutionary
period, it is told that Timothy Pickering, of Salem,—emi-
nent alike as a soldier, a jurist, a statesman, and in later
years as a bitter Federalist partisan,-once heard Baron
Steuben say, while campaigning on the Hudson, that he
"would as soon believe the doctrine of the trinity" as
some tale that had just been told him. This set the seri-
ous young adjutant to thinking, and he became one of the
lay promoters of a very notable theological movement in
his native town.1
The liberal movement in Salem is associated chiefly
with three very eminent names among its ministers. Of
Thomas Barnard, of the North Church (1773-1812), it is
said that he was a man of strong character and remark-
able personal influence. This latter quality was shown in
his effective mediation, in 1775, between a British officer
and young Timothy Pickering, who, with his militia guard,
claimed and kept possession of certain weapons which the
authorities sought to detain. But this great personal in-
fluence was neutral as to those matters of dispute that
J
1 For an interesting sketch of this movement see two papers at the close
of a volume entitled “Social Equilibrium," etc., by Rev. George Batchelor.
*
182
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VIII.
might seem more properly within his province. "Dr.
Barnard," said an unsatisfied parishioner to him one day,
"I never heard you preach a sermon on the trinity."
"No," was the instant reply, "and you never will." His
convention sermon of 1793 went to prove that "faith
in Christ and obedience to his laws" may well be con-
sistent with honest difference as to the grounds of belief
in him.
•
The name of John Prince, of the First Church (1779-
1836), was more familiar, through his long ministry of
fifty-seven years, to men of a younger generation. He
was a man of scientific turn of mind, of gentle and kindly
temper, of easy liberality in belief and practice. Thus he
was interested in the reading and circulating of English
Unitarian books, and-what was a rare thing to do among
the Congregational clergy of that day-he opened his pul-
pit in 1787 to John Murray, the pioneer of Universalism
in America. Through this mild easiness of disposition he
was one of those who, when controversy comes, are readily
suspected of evasion or concealment.
Quite the most remarkable and most independent of the
three "liberal" Salem ministers was William Bentley, of
the East Church (1783-1819), who was called to his place
from a tutorship of mathematics in Harvard College. He
was a man brusquely independent, discarding both the creed
and the great wig "which was its symbol." He discon-
tinued the Friday's "preparatory lecture," then custom-
ary before communion Sunday. He sympathized frankly
with the English Unitarians, holding Priestley's tracts to be
a sufficient vindication of their doctrine. Yet he sharply
opposed divisions in the Congregational body, and scorn-
fully refused to take part in the ordaining of John Mur-
ray, as "an illiterate foreigner without credentials." He
was a most industrious and faithful preacher, writing his
G
WILLIAM BENTLEY.
183
two sermons a week, without break, for six-and-thirty
years. He was among the first to accept the later Uni-
tarian expositions of the Logos, and was earlier than
Channing to oppose the orthodox dogma of native de-
pravity in human nature. He was far in advance of his
day in accepting the spirit of modern democracy, and did
not at all shun to be called by such names of contumely
as "Jacobin," ""Democrat," or "Jeffersonian infidel." An
anecdote shows his daring, popular, and ready temper.
During the War of 1812 word was brought to him in the
pulpit one Sunday morning that the frigate "Constitu-
tion" had taken refuge at Marblehead, four miles away,
threatened by British cruisers. Instantly dismissing the
congregation, he headed a party of relief, riding (says one
account) on a gun-carriage. Whether or not deterred by
the signs of resistance, the cruisers sailed away; upon
which, returning as promptly as he had gone, he thrilled
his audience with an impromptu patriotic discourse on the
text, "There go the ships!" Dr. Bentley was, further-
more, master of learning extremely rare in his day. He
was said to be "expert in at least twenty-one languages,"
and such an adept in calligraphy that manuscript copies.
made by him, in Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, are models
of that elegant art. Thus distinguished as a scholar, he
yet declined the presidency of a college in Vermont, choos-
ing the homelier tasks of his parish ministry. A man of
warm temperament, an eager partisan of the most popu-
lar political creed, a fluent newspaper correspondent, a
devoted pastor and friend, his last act was to visit a sick
parishioner on a bitter December day; and then, return-
ing to his fireside, he dropped dead as he opened his lips
to give some direction to his attendant.
})
Yadig
A still more characteristic influence working in Salem to
the same general effect was that of merchants and ship-
184
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
V
masters, especially those engaged in the East India trade.
Commerce, in the years following the Revolutionary War,
was the most potent element in the social life of Salem.
In particular, commerce in the Indian Ocean here first
came to be of great magnitude and importance, and gave
to this town a rank quite out of proportion to its size or
population. It was on a voyage to the Isle of Bourbon,
in 1794, that Nathaniel Bowditch worked out the com-
putations which gave to his "Practical Navigator" its
supreme authority among books of its class. Professor
Benjamin Peirce, ranked as the profoundest genius among
American mathematicians, was grandson of a Salem ship-
master. The most eminent local names were those dis-
tinguished in that line of commercial adventure; and of
these, almost all the more prominent-twenty, it is said,
out of twenty-four-were to be found in the Unitarian
congregations. Men of their order of intelligence were
quick to be impressed by contact with old-world civiliza-
tions and alien faiths. The supercargo of the first ship
that traded in those waters is related to have volunteered
at home a defense of Mohammedanism. Others felt in
like manner the mental stimulus of foreign travel and ad-
venture, so that the brighter intelligence of New England
fast lost its provincial quality, along with whatever was
narrow in its Puritan tradition. It is a citizen of Salem,
Robert Rantoul, whom we find at a later day in corre-
spondence with Rammohun Roy, touching the points of
kinship between Oriental and Western faiths. Thus "the
first liberalizing influence upon the old Puritan theology
was felt in that community through its navigators, even
more than through its critics and theologians. As soon
as they came into those warmer latitudes, their crust of
prejudice melted and cracked from them like films of ice;
and in place of the narrow tradition they carried out with
Gal
*
f
1
KING'S CHAPEL, BOSTON.
185
them they brought home the germs of a broad religion of
humanity."
The event of chief note in the half-century we have
now traced was that act of the proprietors of King's
Chapel, in Boston, by which (in the language of its min-
ister, Dr. Greenwood) "the first Episcopal Church in New
England became the first Unitarian Church in America."
On the 19th of June, 1785, it was voted, twenty against
seven, to strike out from the order of service whatever
teaches or implies the doctrine of the trinity. This step
was prepared for by a course of discussions on the true
interpretation of Christian doctrine, conducted by James
Freeman, who for about two years had been the "reader"
of that church, and who two years later was formally in-
stalled as its pastor by the Vestry, acting under the general
statutes of Massachusetts, the affiliated churches refusing
their assent or fellowship: The change was further favored
by the temper developed in the revolutionary struggle, when
some of the royalist proprietors went into exile, and their
places were filled by younger men. Mr. Freeman had
had scruples on the point of lay ordination; but, hearing
an English visitor-Rev. Mr. Hazlitt, father of the essay-
ist-assert its validity, he replied, "I wish you could prove
that, sir," and so entered into the argument, in which he
was easily convinced. He soon became an active propa-
gandist of Unitarian doctrine. He published a "Scripture.
Confutation of the Thirty-nine Articles"; distributed the
writings of English Unitarians, including the gift of Priest-
ley's works to Harvard College; and, without being an
eager controversialist, was held in high esteem as a pio-
neer among the early Unitarian leaders, till his death, in
1835, at the age of seventy-six.
For some twenty years following the step taken at
King's Chapel, the movement as it widens out is most
1
186
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
骂
​B
easily to be traced in a series of personal names or inci-
dents. In 1786 Aaron Bancroft, father of the historian,
was settled in Worcester, where from that date till his
death, in 1839, he was widely known as a leader in the
new theology, exhibiting "uniform prudence in counsel
and action, a warm heart and courteous manners, and de-
voted fidelity in all relations of public and private life."
A congregation in Portland, Me., seeking in 1792 to re-
form its order of worship, under the direction of its min-
ister, Mr. Oxnard, found itself drawn into alliance with the
liberal movement; and this act was followed, about the
same time, in the important town of Saco. In 1794 simi-
lar action was taken in Plymouth and in Barnstable. Two
years later are found scattered churches of known Unita-
rian affinities in the States of Connecticut, Rhode Island,
New Hampshire, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.¹ Priestley,
it is said, was warmly urged, in 1794, to settle as a Unita-
rian preacher in both New York and Philadelphia, but
preferred a retired life at Northumberland. Freeman, in
1789, speaks of "many churches in which the worship is
strictly Unitarian"; and we hear at the same date of an
atmosphere of doubt ("not concealed disbelief ") touching
the disputed points of the popular theology. Rejection
of the trinity" would seem to be the one point of agree-
ment among the Boston ministers; and Dr. Joseph Buck-
minster, of Portsmouth, laments in 1799 a tendency that
has already the promise of its most brilliant representative
in his greatly gifted son, who at fifteen has rejected the
doctrine of native depravity, and doubts the trinity.
(C
Thus in the year 1800 it comes to pass that, while
scarce one Congregational preacher can fairly be called
a trinitarian, there is as yet "no line of demarkation."
Eckley is rated as "orthodox," Eliot and Howard as
1 Belsham's "Life of Lindsey" (1812).
Trad
187
CC
"Arian," Emerson as "Unitarian," Kirkland as simply
"liberal." Harvard College, founded to be the nursery
of Puritan theology, is quite neutral, even helplessly so.
Its president, Willard, has "no zeal"; Professor Pearson,
no influence"; Tappan is a "moderate Calvinist "; Pop-
kin, a "Socinian." East of Worcester, seventy-five min-
isters out of two hundred may be reckoned "orthodox";
in Plymouth County, only two out of twenty; in Boston,
one out of nine. This, however, can be counted as hardly
more than a vague unrest. The old Congregational order
is still unbroken. Buckminster, most ardent of the liberals,
writes to Belsham in 1809: "Except in the little town of
Boston and its vicinity, there cannot be collected from any
space of one hundred miles six clergymen who have any
conception of rational theology, and who would not shrink
from the suspicion of antitrinitarianism in any shape."
The "Monthly Repository" of 1812 (p. 200) complains
of the extreme reticence of the Boston ministers, in con-
trast with their more outspoken English sympathizers.
It was not only that they appreciated to the full their
advantage as members in good standing of an established
order; but at this period they honestly distrusted the rad-
ical tendencies pushing to the front in English Unitarian-
ism, and did not choose to wear its name. Priestley's
"materialism" was an object of vague, ignorant dread;
and from Boston there had gone no word of greeting to
him in his exile.
HENRY WARE AT HARVARD COLLEGE.
D
This period of silent and dull neutrality was broken, in
1805, by the appointment of Henry Ware as Hollis pro-
fessor of divinity in Harvard College. He was now, at
the age of forty-one, a modest country minister, settled
in Hingham, Mass., a man of singularly blended sweetness
of temper, austere integrity of conscience, and a touching
humility of spirit, well known as siding with the liberal
-
I
188
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VIII.
party. His appointment was the first clear public mani-
festo of that party's advanced strength. President Wil-
lard had died in the autumn of 1804. Nearly two years
later, Samuel Webber, professor of mathematics-also the
"liberal" candidate, opposed by the Hebrew professor,
Pearson, who had vainly contended against Mr. Ware's
election—was appointed in Willard's place. His install-
ment was soon followed by three others--Sidney Willard,
John Quincy Adams, and John Farrar, in the chairs of
Hebrew, rhetoric, and mathematics-all pointing the same
way. These five appointments within two years made that
university conspicuously the headquarters of intellectual
and religious liberalism in America.¹
The alarm or anger felt by many at the attitude thus
taken by the university naturally turned, in particular,
against the election of the theological professor. The
chair had been founded in 1723 by Thomas Hollis, an
English Dissenter, a Baptist, though not a Calvinist in
the stricter sense. It had been further endowed by the
"Henchman Legacy" of 1747 and strengthened by the
Hopkins Fund" of 1657, both representing the well-
known New England theology. One of its conditions was
that the incumbent should be of "sound and orthodox
belief. On these grounds the election had been actively
opposed by Professor Pearson, himself a "fellow " 2 of the
university and a candidate for its presidency. It was now
acrimoniously attacked as a flagrant breach of trust by
Dr. Jedediah Morse, minister of Charlestown, in a pamphlet
of" True Reasons" assigned for it. All the grounds he
presented had been fully considered by the Corporation,
))
(6
1 Quincy's "History of Harvard University," vol. ii., pp. 284-291.
Other appointments made during the same period, but declined, further cm-
phasize this fact: those of Fisher Ames as president, and of John Pickering,
Nathaniel Bowditch, and Joseph McKean as professors.
2 A member of the Corporation, the immediate governing body.
}
189
which made answer "that this attempt to introduce a cat-
egorical examination into the creed of a candidate was a
barbarous relic of Inquisitorial power, alien alike from the
genius of our government and the spirit of the people;
that Hollis, though agreeing with Calvinists in some
points, was notoriously not a Calvinist; and that by his
statutes he prescribed the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments as the rule of his professor's faith, and not the
Assembly's Catechism." On these grounds the authorities.
of the university rested, not taking any part in the some-
what virulent discussion that followed. As a direct result
of the "gloom over the university" cast by this series of
events, was the munificent foundation of the theological
school at Andover, whose orthodoxy is protected by the
periodical signing of its creed by each of its instructors.
The liberal party were, and are, justly tenacious of their
right of membership in the historic Congregational order.
In Massachusetts this has never been denied them. But
in Connecticut the "consociation" was better able to deal
with heresy. Here the process of separation, or exclusion,
was already begun. In 1805 the minister of Mansfield,
Mr. John Sherman (grandson of. Roger Sherman), was
deposed for free thinking on the subject of the trinity.
He retired to a small congregation in Oldenbarneveldt
(now Trenton), N. Y., where he served for some years,
till he was drawn aside into journalism and politics. Five
years later, at Coventry in Tolland County, Rev. Abiel
Abbot was taken in hand by the consociation of that dis-
trict; but, appealing to a "mutual council," withdrew
under its advice by a voluntary resignation, and went to
Peterborough, N. H., where he has left the record of a
JOHN SHERMAN; ABIEL ABBOT.
T
1 Quincy's "History," vol. ii., p. 285; compare p. 211; vol. i., pp. 168–
170. The Henchman Legacy prescribes "the well-known confession of faith
drawn up by a synod of churches in New England" (see above, p. 173); the
Hopkins Fund is given "for the promotion of religion, science, and charity."
190
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. VIII.
long term of useful service, and the memory of a saintly
life. Difference of opinion has led since to many a sep--
aration of minister and people, doubtless painful, but, in
the Congregational body, to few or no ecclesiastical trials.
There has been within quite recent memory, if there is
not now, a pretty wide diversity of doctrine in many con-
gregations, without disturbing their outward peace. This
should be remembered in judging those of more liberal
views among the Congregational clergy, who have been so
sharply charged with concealment or evasion.
The account given a few years later by Dr. Channing
is the most precise testimony we have as to the position of
those who afterwards ranked as Unitarian: "A majority
of our brethren believe that Jesus Christ is more than
man; that he existed before the world; that he literally
came from heaven to save our race; that he sustains other
offices than those of teacher and witness of the truth; and
that he still acts for our benefit and is our intercessor with
the Father. Others reject the distinction of three Persons,
without judging on system as to his nature and work.
Others believe the simple humanity of Christ." "We
preach," he says, "precisely as if no such doctrine as the
trinity had ever been known." "Non-biblical phrases
ought not to divide us." "Should differences of opinion.
cause division of the church ?—a solemn, infinitely impor-
tant question.' We are vague, because we are faithful."
""
"C
This is as far as possible from the temper of controversy.
At that time, indeed, there was an almost passionate de-
sire, on the part of liberals, to escape from controversy.
The best minds among them aimed to conduct the dis-
cussion on the neutral ground of scholarship and letters.
Buckminster, their brightest light,-of whom it was said
that forty years after his death (in 1812) there were Bos-
ton merchants who could not recall his memory without
"
J
Gall
THE "MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY.”
191
tears, was best known by his eloquent discourses on prac-
tical piety and by his eager studies in the criticism of the
Greek Testament. For ten years together the points at
issue were discussed alternately, like moves in a friendly
game of chess, in the annual convention sermon-not by
direct attack or defense of doctrine, but by defining the
"essentials" of Christian faith. For once, in 1815, after
the close of the war with Great Britain, Channing departed
widely from theological bickering to political ethics, in a
discourse on war and peace. Still the controversy emerged
at other points.
In 1803 the “Anthology Club" was founded in Boston
as a rallying-ground for those of known liberal sym-
pathies, and presently became the recognized exponent
of the new spirit. It consisted of fourteen members, six
of them ministers, and its gatherings were for some years
the most important social events in that community. In
November appeared the first number of the "Monthly
Anthology," the first literary and critical magazine of
note in America. It was continued till June, 1811; and .
its ten volumes are still of interest for the contemporary
notices they give of such topics as Scott's new poems and
the total eclipse of 1806. Less space than we might ex-
pect is given to theological discussion. But, indirectly,
the new views were made sharply prominent in a defense
of the position of Harvard College (March, 1805) against
Dr. Morse's "True Reasons"; in a discussion of the Sher-
man case (May, 1806); in a review of Griesbach's text
and the Improved Version (in 1811); and especially in
a very vigorous comment by Rev. S. C. Thacher on the
position taken by the Andover school in demanding the
periodical signing of a creed. These are the most impor-
tant contributions of the "Anthology" to the literature
of the liberal movement-disappointing those who would
•
Kal
1
*
192
»
THE UNITARIANS.
(C
[CHAP. VIII.
learn more of the inside history. It was followed by
the "General Repository" (1812, 1813), conducted by
Andrews Norton, with a sharper eye to the theological
issue; the "Christian Disciple" (1813-24), in charge of
Noah Worcester, "the apostle of peace," aiming chiefly
to be a journal of practical religion and philanthropy;
and the "Christian Examiner" (1824-69), which, reflect-
ing the several phases of the intellectual change coming
to pass in its day, became in its later years an independ-
ent journal, including topics of political ethics, general his-
tory, and the higher criticism. All these journals rather
avoided than sought matter of controversy, giving far the
larger space to questions of general moral or literary in-
terest.1
Two sharp shocks broke the uneasy truce so studiously
kept. Belsham's "Life of Lindsey," of which he sent a
very elegant copy to Harvard College, contained a chapter
on "American Unitarianism," giving correspondence that
showed a much closer alliance of several Boston liberals
with the movement in England than they had been sup-
posed willing to admit. The story got wind. In 1815
Dr. Morse saw the book, and caught gladly at the impli-
cation. "The veil was now torn away," and the liberal
party were compelled to accept, very reluctantly, the title
Unitarian." The reluctance was sincere, and not dis-
honest. In their view, it was highly important, for the
truth's own sake, that the movement should be sponta-
neous, independent of sectarian by-words or party name.
Thus their hand was forced. But the result was inevi-
table; it was also right. If a party exist, it must carry its
own flag and be known by its name. The name " Unita-
-
Ma
1 In ten years the "Disciple" contains only six articles that throw light
on the theological issues of the time; the "Examiner" in eight years has no
more. Contrast this with the intensely polemical motive of the Panoplist"
(1805–20) and of the "Spirit of the Pilgrims" (established in 1828).
JOHN LOWELL; W. E. CHANNING.
193
rian was as little open to misconstruction as any other.
It might come in time to be as broadly inclusive and hon-
orable as any other.
""
The immediate effect was to wake a sudden sense of
courage and strength. It had been asked, "Shall we have
the Boston religion, or the Christian religion?" Answer
was made-not by a theologian, but by a man of the
world-in a very vigorous pamphlet with the title "Are
you a Christian or a Calvinist?" The pamphlet was
written by John Lowell, brother of the preacher and one
of the corporation of Harvard University. The conflict
was waged "without gloves," in wholesome plainness of
speech. Impatient of a tame and apologetic defense, the
writer takes the tone of attack. He vindicates the atti-
tude of the university; turns the tables upon Dr. Morse;
scorns all attempts at a show of ecclesiastical domination;
reads a sound lecture from the history of intolerance; dis-
dains the rule of association, council, or consociation, just
as it had been refused by the good sense of Massachusetts
a century before.¹ Such words as these cleared the dull
air. Theologians caught a new tone of courage from their
lay champion. This is the tone we hear in Channing's
Baltimore sermon of 1819, the first clear voice that roused
the Unitarians of America to understand what the position
they had drifted into really meant. Unitarianism, when
this discourse was published, was charged as pure rational-
ism. "We must choose," retorted Channing, "between
rational Christianity and infidelity."
The second shock was from the decision rendered in
1820 by the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in the case
of the parish at Dedham, from which a majority of the
+
Bea
1 Nathaniel Emmons (1745-1840) said, in his sharp individualistic temper,
"Association leads to Consociation, Consociation to Presbyterianism, Presby-
terianism to Episcopalianism, and Episcopalianis to Popery."
194
[CHAP. VIII.
THE UNITARIANS.
1
church-members had withdrawn on the election of a lib-
eral minister: that "when the majority of the members of
a Congregational church shall separate from the majority
of the parish, the members who remain, although a minor-
ity, constitute the church in such parish, and retain the
rights and property belonging thereto." This decision,
though perhaps logically necessary, was bitterly resented:
it lent, or seemed to lend, the hand of law to help the
liberal as presumably the more secular party; it added
the sting of wrong to the sense of loss. It was, however,
the decision of a lay tribunal, purely technical, and bear-
ing but indirectly upon our proper topic. The general
results of the period now brought to a close will be best
told in the words of Dr. Lyman Beecher, speaking of the
time (1823) when he came to Boston: "All the literary
men of Massachusetts were Unitarian; all the trustees
and professors of Harvard College were Unitarian; all the
élite of wealth and fashion crowded Unitarian churches;
the judges on the bench were Unitarian, giving decisions
by which the peculiar features of church organization so
carefully ordered by the Pilgrim Fathers had been nulli-
fied, and all the power had passed into the hands of the
congregation."
mag
1 See a full and dispassionate statement of the case in a volume entitled
"Unitarianism, Its Origin and History," made by Dr. G. E. Ellis, president
of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston: A. U. A.).
?
CHAPTER IX.
PERIOD OF CONTROVERSY AND EXPANSION.
THE Unitarians of Boston and its vicinity first felt the
courage of their convictions, and knew where their real
strength lay, when Channing delivered his celebrated dis-
course in Baltimore, on the 5th of May, 1819. At this
time we may reckon the number of their churches as
about one hundred and twenty in eastern Massachusetts,
with nine or ten in the other New England States. Of
these not one called itself Unitarian, and only one has
adopted that name since. The movement represented.
by it was, further, confined within extremely narrow local
boundaries. A radius of thirty-five miles from Boston as
a center would sweep almost the whole field of its history
and influence. Outside of this, twelve or fifteen churches
lay in a belt a little to the north, running as far back as to
the Connecticut River; while the important towns of Port-
land, Portsmouth, Worcester, Providence, and New Bed-
ford made its frontier stations. Baltimore and Charleston
were distant outposts, established in 1817; New York and
Springfield were added to the list in this very year.
Channing was now at the age of thirty-nine. He was
best known, hitherto, as a fervent preacher of practical
piety in the Boston pulpit: a man of slight personal pres-
1 That in North Chelsea (Revere), which took the name in 1887. Of the
twenty-nine Boston churches now known as Unitarian only four are so
designated in their title. That name had been given, in 1819, only to the
two founded by Priestley in Pennsylvania, at Northumberland (1794) and
Philadelphia (1796).
195
196
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IX.
ence and retiring ways, with little that would mark him
as a probable leader in public controversy. Though, since
the death of Buckminster in 1812, he had been the fore-
most champion of the liberal theology, no one was more
solicitous than he that the movement should be kept
within the lines of historic Congregationalism, or protested
more sincerely against defining that movement by the one
narrow term " Unitarian." Quite reluctantly, in 1815, he
had been drawn into a very prominent position in the con-
troversy with Dr. Samuel Worcester, when he pleaded as
urgently for keeping the Congregational body unbroken
as he contended earnestly against some of its cardinal
points of doctrine. When Jared Sparks (better known
since in the field of history) was installed minister of a
church in Baltimore avowedly Unitarian, in a structure
then probably the noblest in its architecture that any
American Protestant body could boast, Channing chose so
notable an occasion for appeal in a higher tone, to a far
wider hearing, than any that had been had as yet. His
discourse was not an argument addressed to theologians
on disputed points of doctrine, but an impeachment of the
orthodoxy of that day at the bar of the popular reason and
conscience. The terms in which he described it were re-
sented, even then, as exaggerated and unjust. Certainly
we may well doubt whether at this day a single reputable
pulpit in America would profess the naked Calvinism he
arraigned.
The argument of the discourse, which has become his-
torical, is cast in five divisions. First, it deals with the
unreason of the trinity, the perplexity it offers to the
understanding, especially the confusion of thought as to
the proper object of worship-here taking the familiar
ground of the English Unitarians. Next, it sets forth the
like confusion of thought as induced by the metaphysics
kat
197
of Christ's double nature. Thirdly, it charges the moral
paradox of the alleged conflict of justice and mercy in the
Divine Nature, by which the reverence due to the Holy
One is baffled and perplexed. Again, it dwells upon the
moral enormity of a view of the Atonement which only
exasperates and heightens the supposed conflict it claims
to reconcile. Lastly, the true nature of Salvation is set
forth as a moral or spiritual condition of the soul itself,
and this is contrasted with the arbitrary "imputation" of
another's righteousness. Channing, it may be charged,
was not greatly learned in theology, not a master in met-
aphysics, not elaborately trained in controversy. No be-
liever in the trinity that ever lived, it may be, would admit
his statement of it to be correct. But no man ever put
more cogently than he the plain language of reason and
conscience as it goes out to the common mind. For the
purpose of his argument this was enough. It was enough,
too, for the style of debate with which he had to deal.
Even so scholarly an opponent as Professor Stuart has
only to say, by way of reply, that the "persons" of the
trinity mean "some distinction, not three beings or sepa-
rate consciousnesses. What is that distinction? I do not
know. It is a fact, but we do not pretend to under-
stand what it is." "Unitarianism," he adds, "will come.
to pure rationalism-the sooner the better. Then the
parties will understand each other."
Not the argument of the Baltimore discourse, however,
so much as its positive and aggressive tone, the total ab-
sence of apology in it, accounts for the effect it appears
to have had as argument. To this we must add, besides,
the warm prophet-glow which made it not a bald essay of
doctrinal theology, but a living discourse of positive re-
ligion. It became, accordingly, the keynote of what is
known to this day as "Channing Unitarianism." This
CHANNING'S BALTIMORE SERMON.
briant
198
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IX.
style of doctrine clings very closely to the Scripture text,
and shelters itself, a little anxiously, within the lines of
church tradition, attenuated as they may be in the rare
and chill atmosphere of modern speculation. But its main
motive is ethical, human, secular. It addresses the con-
science, rather than the sentiment of an unreasoning de-
votion. Its aim is, through moral feeling and a purified
affection, to tell directly upon action, and in that sense to
interpret religion as a spirit and a life. In respect of doc-
trine, it is unsatisfying and vague. Rejecting creeds, it
has as yet no firm hold on scientific thought. Modern
cosmology and modern criticism are a world unknown to
it. The field it shows in to best advantage is the field of
the larger and finer ethics of human life, ethics both per-
sonal and social. It has done much to exalt and vitalize
the common moralities, which it has always been charged
with laying too much stress upon; and it has, in particular,
led the way to much of the best work of our day in edu-
cation and the larger humanities. In the later years of
his life, Channing was most widely known as a Christian
philanthropist. It was he who perhaps contributed most,
through his friend Joseph Tuckerman, to the earliest
effective organizing of the charities of Boston in the Fra-
ternity of Churches, established in 1835. Such topics as
general education, temperance, humane legislation, refor-
mation of criminals, international peace, had in him an
eager, fluent, effective advocate. With a certain hardi-
hood that might seem alien from his shrinking and vale-
tudinarian temper, he stood openly upon the public.
platform beside the abolitionist leaders, whose counsel
and methods he did not accept, when they were most
vindictively assailed. The most elaborate essays he ever
composed were the series treating the social and political
aspects of American slavery. There is no more character-
Ka
CHANNING UNITARIANISM.
199
istic exhibition of his serene, idealizing, hopeful style of
eloquence than in the Lenox address on emancipation in
the British West Indies, delivered a few weeks before his
death.¹
M
"The healthiest period in the moral life of Boston and
its vicinity," wrote Dr. Gannett, "was during the quarter
of a century between the years 1810 and 1835." These
were the days when Channing's purely religious influence
was most powerful; before the days when the Unitarian
body was sharply divided on points of critical theology,
and when the questions touching slavery went so deep
into our political life. It was not a period of special depth
or earnestness in religious thought. The essays that fol-
lowed up old lines of discussion were mostly re-statements
of the familiar argument, void of the genuine though acrid
heat of controversy. The time of scientific criticism was
not yet, and doctrine as development had not come to be
matter of historic curiosity. When the question of Christ's
preëxistence was stirred, in 1822, "Leave it alone," said
Henry Ware, Jr.-then a young minister of Boston, singu-
larly beloved, of sweet and humble temper, with occasional
quick sharpness of speech and well versed in debate-
"leave it alone; it is a thing of small consequence!" The
Christian Examiner" was founded in 1824 to take the
place of the "Christian Disciple," whose tone was thought
to be too smooth and vague, and was conducted by a
series of able editors; but in its first year it disclaimed
sympathy with Universalism, which, as a kindred and
more positive creed, might possibly have touched the mild
liberalism of that day with a more virile temper. The
advance in theology was timid and faltering. A tone of
weariness and self-distrust has been found, or suspected,
((
1 He died of autumn fever, at Bennington, Vt., October 2, 1842, at the
age of sixty-two.
་
200
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
i
..
in the Unitarian literature of the years ensuing, as if from
distaste or fatigue of the long-drawn battle. The most
significant word spoken in this interval was but a half-way
word of apology, appearing in the "Examiner" in 1829,
to the effect that the Bible is, after all, "not a revelation,
but the record of a revelation." The formula passed cur-
rent for a time, but soon caught the unfriendly eye.
"There, it is out at last!" was the exulting cry of the
})
Spirit of the Pilgrims," eager to renew the battle. The
"pure rationalism" predicted by Moses Stuart seemed to
be already in the field. Unitarianism, said Channing
ten years later, speaking of this time, was but "a protest
of the understanding against absurd dogmas. We were
early paralyzed by the mixture of philosophy, and fell too
much into the hands of scholars and political reformers.
The last word of the Unitarian controversy, as a still living
issue on the old lines, is held to have been spoken when,
in 1833, Rev. George B. Cheever delivered at Salem a
discourse described as "vituperative," to which no formal
reply seems to have been offered. With this, and a "Post-
script" addressed to the "Examiner," we have "the last
publication of any note before the controversy virtually
ceased."1
W
(C
"The result is," said Dr. Gannett, speaking in 1835,
we are a community by ourselves." The process by
which the two "wings" of the Congregational body in
Massachusetts had gradually drawn apart, began very
far back. In 1812 Rev. John Codman, of Dorchester, an-
nounced at his settlement that in the customary pulpit
exchanges of courtesy with neighboring ministers he
should be free (which meant that he would be bound)
1 The nature of the questions at issue, and especially their bearing on the
religious topics of the day, should be studied in "A Half Century of the
Unitarian Controversy," by George E. Ellis, D.D. (Boston, 1857).
!
LYMAN BEECHER IN BOSTON.
201
to draw the line against those not orthodox. This an-
nouncement was reckoned harsh and strange, and it led to
a local controversy of some sharpness, in which Mr. Cod-
man gained his point. There remained, however, and has
continued to this day, a neutral belt, within which the
ancient courtesies are still exchanged.
>>
But the line of distinction was growing more broad
and distinct with years. In 1823 the orthodox position,
held till then by only one of the Boston Congregational
churches, was greatly strengthened by the coming of Dr.
Lyman Beecher to the charge of a congregation just
gathered in Park Street-" Brimstone Corner," as it was
fondly called during the years of orthodox revival which
followed. In 1828 the "Spirit of the Pilgrims was es-
tablished, to aid in winning back the ground that had been
lost; and this fresh voice vigorously sustained the policy
of excluding the new light from evangelical pulpits. In
the same year the " Christian Examiner" showed also an
unwonted access of polemical ardor: three articles on
"infant damnation," the sorest spot of the old Calvinism,
and a paper by Orville Dewey on "Orthodoxy and Lib-
eralism," testify to the fresh zest of controversy. Charges
of bigotry were hotly pressed on one side, to be repelled
disdainfully by the other; but "Are they not true?" asks
Channing, in 1831. The zeal, however, was short-lived,
and seems to have lapsed, in a year or two, into the some-
what languid indifference before noted; and, with this,
Unitarian journals admit a certain lack and sterility of the
religious life in too many of their congregations, especially
the country churches, in contrast with the new awakening
of Evangelicanism in New England.
In 1831 we hear the first note of "German Rational-
ism" in a paper by Francis Cunningham (the earliest
translator of Gieseler into English), showing that Unita-
202
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
rian thought already begins to turn towards new issues. It
is, further, an interesting point to remark that the fading
out of the older controversy in 1833 exactly coincides with
the withdrawal of all legal support from the churches of
Massachusetts, which must rely thenceforth wholly on
voluntary gifts. Here the advantage was to those of the
more positive and aggressive faith. The disestablishment,
it is probable, was more dreaded by the liberal party; and
the advocacy of it by some of the more orthodox may be
taken as a damaging retort to the Dedham decision, which
had turned over the old church powers and properties to
secular hands.
But the Unitarians were well content with the immense
advantage they still held in that undisputed social and
political ascendancy so well described by Dr. Beecher. In
the exercise of this advantage it may be claimed that they
were not wholly unworthy custodians of it. The motive
of their gospel, as announced and upheld by Channing,
was fundamentally ethical: it appealed to conscience, and
aimed directly to affect the conduct of life. Such a gos-
pel is not like a creed, which demands rigid interpreting
of its terms. It is rather a law of life, capable of infinitely
modified and varying application. What it was in the
character of the lay public to which it made appeal, and
in the scrupulous administration of great public trusts, has
been often told, and makes the most characteristic as it is
the most honorable chapter in the story of Unitarianism
in America. A long line of jurists, statesmen, men of
science or of business, including such names as Adams,
Quincy, Bigelow, Jackson, Shaw, Lowell, Perkins, Apple-
ton; of men of letters, including, with hardly an excep-
tion, every one of those who, from Prescott to Holmes,
have given Boston its place in our intellectual history-
testify not so much the direct influence and power of
203
Unitarianism itself, as the nature of the soil it sprang from,
and of the mental atmosphere in which it throve. But
the diversities of type and operation it put directly forth
will be seen most clearly in a group-which I sketch from
personal memories-of honored names among its preach-
ers, friends and companions of Channing in his work, who
exhibit in varying phases the light of that faith which is
properly characteristic of the period he represents.
A few such names, of those no longer living, are the
following: Orville Dewey (1794-1882), a man of unique
power in the pulpit, which was his throne, in whom
thought was more intimately blended with emotion than
in any other great preacher we have listened to or can
easily bring to mind, who seemed to make the sacred desk
a confessional to whisper the most secret things of the
religious life, whose large and brooding intellect set itself
to interpret the soul's deepest experience in terms of fresh-
est. knowledge and youngest thought, whose mind was
generously open till long past eighty to the latest methods
or discoveries in the pursuit of truth; Nathaniel Langdon
Frothingham (1793-1870), the very model-like his friend
and classmate Everett-of a Christian gentleman and
scholar, cultivated in mind, refined in taste, placid of tem-
per, courteous and sweet in manner, of intellect widely
open to the welcome of freshest truth, but jealously alive
to the traditions and sanctities of religious observance;
James Walker (1794-1874), president of the university,
most grave and candid of divines, honored alike in pro-
fessional and in academic life, of singular ethical weight
and power in the pulpit, a man whose shrewd wisdom,
generous tolerance, wide philosophic culture, and dignity
of character were not more marked than the cordial and
kindly interest he always had in younger men; John Pier- .
pont (1785-1866), tender religious poet and high-tempered
REPRESENTATIVE NAMES.
M
204
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNİTARIANS.
C
Christian warrior, proud, combative, fond of subtle para-
dox, hot with the glow of ethical passion, eager to strike
out every way in the battle of reform, always pressing
home some sharp point of his aggressive moral creed;
Samuel Joseph May (1797-1871), that brave saint of all
the humanities, in whom sweetness and courage were more
perfectly blended than in any other we have known, whose
great heart by a generous instinct went out every way to
the poor, the forsaken, and the oppressed, whose temper
was so radiant with kindly humor that they who loved
him may say that only to have looked upon him was a
sort of sunshine in one nook at least of the most unfriended
life; Ezra Stiles Gannett (1801-71), Channing's colleague
and successor in the Federal Street pulpit, most fervid
and devoted of men, whose conscience, morbidly acute,
was burdened with every grief and sin of the city where
he did his noble work, whose burning speech almost in-
spired the cool temper of Boston Unitarianism with his
own missionary zeal, of whom it may well be said that ten
such men would have carried the blaze of his generous
gospel like a prairie fire from shore to shore of our conti-
nent; George Putnam (1807-77), whose clear argumenta-
tive statement commanded the respect of the ablest jur-
ists, whose large sense matched the worldly wisdom of
statesmen and financiers, the eloquent orator of homely
morality and the religion of every-day life, which his
touch transfigured to poetry and splendor; Ephraim Pea-
body (1807-56), his classmate and nearest friend, the
well-beloved minister of King's Chapel, whose voice was
melody and his face a benediction, who so patiently en-
dured much poverty and sorrow in his earlier ministry
that its later prosperity and joy were always touched with
grave humility of spirit, in whom serenity, sweetness, and
a cautious wisdom were gathered in a combination as rare
Judg
}
EMERSON's resignATION.
-1
J
205
as it was attractive; William Greenleaf Eliot (1811-87),
who in his bright youth left the most flattering prospects
of a metropolitan career that he might devote his life, as
he did with singular intelligence, consecration, and energy,
to what was then remote frontier service in St. Louis,
gaining for his reward the largest moral and personal
power accorded to any man in that great community;
Andrew Preston. Peabody (1811-93), everybody's helper
and friend, kindly, scholarly, grave, in whom the most
gracious type of the elder scriptural Unitarianism survived
through an entire generation, welcomed and trusted alike
in every Christian communion regardless of all bounds of
sect, who, when lines of division appeared in his own re-
ligious body, sided somewhat sharply with the elder party,
yet with a kindliness of heart that widened and mellowed
as his years increased, and who, with rare freshness of
physical and mental vigor, obeyed every summons of
social or public duty to the very end. These memories
may serve to hint the quality of "Boston Unitarianism
in the day of its ascendancy and power.1
In the year 1832, just while the glow of the earlier con-
troversy was fading out, the first open break was made
with the accepted customs of the Congregational order.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, minister of the Second Church in
Boston (where he had succeeded Henry Ware, Jr., three
years before), resigned his charge on the refusal of his
church-members to discontinue or radically change the
order of communion service. The discourse in which he
took leave of his congregation, in giving reasons for the
step, reviews briefly the practice of the primitive church,
examines in detail the New Testament grounds for regard-
>>
"
Batte
1 The character of the earlier Unitarianism will be best traced in the vol-
umes of "American Unitarian Biography," edited by Rev. William Ware
(Boston, 2 vols.), and in Dr. Sprague's "Annals of the American Pulpit,"
vol. viii.
206
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
:
ing the Lord's Supper as a positive ordinance, and states
briefly the practical objections to the customary form. It
is, in short, quite the most formal and argumentative essay
that remains to us of Emerson's composition.¹ To these
reasons he might have added that Congregationalism has
never regarded the Lord's Supper as a sacrament vitally
essential; and that it was almost wholly suspended during
the first nine years of the Plymouth colony, because it
might not be administered by an elder, but only by an
ordained pastor. The shock was nevertheless sharply felt
--not least, it is probable, by the Unitarians, who were in
general devout observers of that ordinance, and might feel
a jar, as of suddenly opening the gates to a wide and un-
familiar field of the religious life outside. Mr. Emerson
thus withdrew, in his thirtieth year, to the rural life which
his genius has made illustrious, and for some years lived.
content in that calm retreat.
In 1836 that genius first declared itself to the world in
the quaint, winning, lovely, and sometimes baffling pages
of "Nature," the earliest poetic or prophetic breath of that
fresh mental life then called transcendental." It was
received as the stirring of an air balmy and fragrant, it
might be, but filled with strange odors, and of dubious
effect on the spiritual climate. Some of us still remember
a certain grave solicitude with which its phrases were first
listened to by Unitarians of the elder school, who felt
rather than saw whither that new influence might tend.
The solicitude deepened when-heralded by the wholly
unconventional style and charm of his address on "The
American Scholar " given in 1837-Mr. Emerson delivered
in July, 1838, the most celebrated and influential of all
his public discourses, that spoken to the graduating class
of the Harvard Divinity School. This was the frankest
3
1 It is given in full in an appendix to O. B. Frothingham's "Transcend-
entalism in New England,"
I
+
*
207
challenge ever as yet thrown down to the traditional views
of the Divine Nature, Jesus, Christianity, or the offices of
the church; and it proved the melodious, effective prelude
to a conflict of opinion that has far more deeply than any
other stirred the current of our religious thought.
"C
The feeling with which the Divinity School Address
was received has been described by a listener to it as “a
vague and exhilarating delight: it had shocked some,
while it had charmed others, as the first clear word of
'another gospel, which yet was not another.' Its covert
doctrine was currently supposed to be Pantheism; and this
was described by one of the critics of the day as Atheism
disguising itself under a preposterous name," which only
made the danger of it the greater. As a challenge to the
dreaded tendency, Prof. Henry Ware, Jr., preached in the
college chapel a sermon on "the personality of the Deity,'
a copy of which he sent with a friendly note to Mr. Emer-
son, eliciting this very characteristic reply: "I could not
possibly give you one of the arguments you cruelly hint
at, on which any doctrine of mine stands; for I do not
know what arguments mean in reference to any expres-
sion of thought." "Not," adds his biographer, "that he
was incapable of reasoning, but always disinclined to
argue;" and "upon this occasion argument would have
been out of place."
})
EMERSON'S DIVINITY SCHOOL ADDRESS.
> })
But controversy was in the air, and was formally opened
the next year (1839) by Andrews Norton, late professor in
the School, in a discourse on "the latest form of infidel-
ity." This discourse was not an attack on any position.
distinctly taken by Mr. Emerson, or on the critical results
of German scholarship, which Mr. Norton had himself, in
fact, largely adopted.¹ It dealt rather with certain ten-
dencies in German thought charged as vague, delusive,
D
1 As shown, later, in his "Note" on the Old Testament, and in his rejec
tion of the first two chapters of Matthew's Gospel (see p, 210, below).
208
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
and "pantheistic," represented in particular by Spinoza,
Schleiermacher, and De Wette. Its argument was a formal
and very able defense of the doctrine, as commonly held,
of a revelation proved by miracle. Mr. Norton was gen-
erally recognized as the scholar and critic best equipped
among the Unitarians, and his charges commanded instant
attention. The positive tone of assertion and the combat-
ive temper of the discourse at once brought forward new
parties to the debate. Of the replies, much the ablest.
and most important was that of Rev. George Ripley, then
minister of a congregation newly gathered in Purchase
Street, since dissolved. Mr. Ripley addressed to Profes-
sor Norton a series of " Letters," which were in fact
elaborate essays, making a moderately thick volume. In
these, with admirable spirit and ability, he gave citations.
so copious as to make his pamphlets a pretty full intro-
duction and guide to the study of the famous writers
whose names had been so thrust upon the public. These
pamphlets, with one in which Mr. Norton sustained and
reinforced his charges, amply cover the ground of the de-
bate, though several writers of lesser note volunteered to
the support of one or the other party.
The real point at issue in that debate has been often
misunderstood, as if it had been merely the question of
admitting the miraculous or supernatural features of the
gospel history. On the contrary, Mr. Ripley says, in one
of his letters, "For my own part, I cannot avoid the con-
clusion that the miracles related in the Gospels were actu-
ally wrought by Jesus;" and Theodore Parker (then near
the age of thirty), assuming the name "Levi Blodgett,"
with a style of unlearned and rustic plainness, and seeking
to bring the whole case before the bar of popular com-
mon sense, says, "I believe that Jesus, like other religious
teachers, wrought miracles." It thus appears that the
A
Taval
NORTON AND RIPLEY.
209
dispute was not as to their opinions, which at that time
were in the main those generally held; but as to a new
and unfamiliar order of thought, which was seen to be
powerfully affecting the principles and foundations of
men's religious belief. In this dispute Mr. Norton, whose
method was in itself the more rationalizing and scientific,
held to the hard-and-fast supernaturalism of the older
Unitarian school; while his opponents, claiming more for
the distinctively spiritual side of man's intelligence, opened
the way to the pure naturalism, with all its critical results,
-which he foresaw. They earnestly maintained the reality
of the religious life, wholly independent of doctrinal form;
while he honestly held that very clearly defined opinion is
essential to any hold upon religious truth. To such a
mind as his the language of Mr. Ripley, or that of the
German theologians whom he copied, must seem vague,
delusive, and sophistical.
Meanwhile the work of criticism had been going on, in
lines quite independent of this debate. In 1831, as we
have seen, the first hint had been given of that form of
exposition known as "German rationalism."
"German rationalism." In 1834
Rev. (afterwards Professor) George R. Noyes, then the
studious pastor of a country parish, published an essay on
the Messianic prophets, as fit answer to which was sug-
gested a prosecution under the old Massachusetts law of
blasphemy; and Attorney-General Austin was understood
to stand ready to conduct the case if the terms of the
statute had seemed to warrant. Prof. John G. Palfrey's
"Lectures on Jewish History and Antiquities," published
in 1840, expounded the Book of Genesis as a later com-
pilation from at least two independent sources, while
defending the received opinion as to the other "Mosaic"
writings. A "Note" on the Old Testament by Andrews
Norton, appearing in 1844, rejected the opinion that
210
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
Moses was in any sense the author of the Pentateuch, or
that the prophets were divinely inspired to foretell the
mission of Christ; it criticised with the utmost freedom
the history, morals, and doctrine found in the Hebrew
scriptures; and maintained the exceptional inspiration of
Moses and Elijah purely on the ground of allusions made.
to them in the Gospels, and as a position to be held in the
argument for the Christian evidences. About the same
time De Wette's "Introduction to the Old Testament,"
translated and copiously annotated by Theodore Parker,
brought suddenly into view the whole wide range of Ger-
man erudition in that province.
So far, the discussion, though open to public hearing,
was directly addressed to scholars, critics, and students of
theology. But a word of note had been spoken, and was
widely echoing, from the South Boston pulpit, where, on
the 19th of May, 1841, Theodore Parker addressed the
congregation gathered at the settlement of Rev. Charles.
C. Shackford, on "the transient and permanent in Chris-
tianity." The wide impression made by this discourse
was due in part to its qualities of thought and style; but
still more to its bringing the most radical questions of crit-
ical theology directly before the popular mind, and appeal-
ing on them to the popular judgment,—we must add, the
confident and warmly religious tone of that appeal. Hith-
erto, miracles would seem to have been tacitly assented
to on both sides, as marking the line of division between
Christian belief and whatever lay outside. Now, the
wonderful works ascribed to Jesus were suddenly, nay,
offensively, brought to the level of those performed by
such errant theosophists as Apollonius of Tyana, while his
divine generation was compared to that of Hercules, son of
Jove. And all this, in seeming unconsciousness of the
shock which such comparison must give,
་
1
$
THEODORE parker.
2 II
These things it is necessary to mention, because they
counted far more than argument in the angry reaction
that followed. That sharply reactionary temper prevailed,
in a large majority of the Unitarian body, almost to the
time of Theodore Parker's death; and it has only been
soothed, since, by a mood of religious thought to which
the question of miracles itself is no longer essential but
incidental. "Now we have a Unitarian orthodoxy!" was
Channing's comment, in anticipation of the debate that
followed. Of its later effect the following testimony, pub-
lished in 1889, has been accepted without denial or dis-
pute that, respecting the miracles of the New Testament,
"thousands among us receive them with the same faith,
comfort, and reverence as of old; but not one of us thinks
of defining the line of Christian fellowship by them, not
one of us would stake a single point of his own religious
faith upon them, not one of us appeals to them as argu-
ment for the spiritual truth,-at most, as what that truth
as it is in Jesus' may help us to accept.
(
"]
(C
This great change of general opinion could not possibly
be anticipated then. The controversy, as it followed, was
in great part a battle in the dark, for lack of mutual under-
standing of the terms employed. To set his position more
plainly before the public, Mr. Parker expounded it, the
succeeding winter, in a series of five lectures, which ap-
peared in the spring of 1842, enlarged into a thick volume,
as a Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion." This
book is probably the best, certainly it has proved far the
most effective, exposition of his style of religious thought.
With great ardor of conviction, generous confidence in 7
the power of naked truth, lavish illustration from literary
sources, and noble wealth of rhetoric, it disarmed by no
reticence-nay, rather, exasperated by needless affronts-
1 Unitarian Review" for January, 1889, p. 16.
co
S
212
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
the angry prejudice already raised against its author, whom
opposition now forced into a far wider field of influence
than any denominational boundaries could permit.
{
The death of Channing, just at this turning-point of our
history, removed one bond of peace. He was in doubt
whether to call Parker a Christian, but at least esteemed
and loved him as a friend. Sharp lines of separation
began now to be drawn. These showed first in the with-
holding of pulpit exchanges, which then more than now
were the accepted test of fellowship-an inconvenient one,
since they suggested, if they did not imply, the right to
be heard before an audience to which one might be neither
asked nor welcome. Besides, as was aptly said at the time,
the objection felt to these exchanges was not all on the
conservative side. The earliest, and surely a quite gratui-
tous, bitterness occasioned by the controversy thus grew
out of a mere custom or convention, which would be sub-
mitted to in no other walk of life, and at this day is hardly.
even understood. To avoid that token of fraternity or to
withhold it was then counted a personal affront.
D
(
-
Another step of separation was suggested, but was
never carried out. It was, that Mr. Parker should be
compelled, either by direct exclusion or by moral pressure,
to retire from membership in the Boston Association.
The subject was formally debated in his presence at a
meeting held in January, 1843. When he was charged
with holding a position outside of Christianity, he replied
that he, on the contrary, accepted Christianity as "abso-
lute religion"; and demanded, if any did not so regard it,
whether they held it to be more or less than absolute
religion, and if more, then what must be added to absolute
religion to make it Christianity! The obvious answer
1 He appears never to have defined quite clearly the meaning of the phrase
"absolute religion." Thus he once wrote, "If to-morrow I am to perish
213
S
would be, that Christianity is absolute religion as testified
by certain witnesses, embodied in certain customs and in-
stitutions, and vouched by a special Divine authority,
through which evidences it becomes, in fact, valid and
effectual for us. Discussion on this line seems not to have
been taken up. Through much variance and some sharp-
ness of opinion appearing in his own account of the debate,
yet the common feeling, as he describes it, was generous
and even tender. "The sharp arrows," says Mr. Froth-
ingham, in narrating this incident, "fell harmless to the
ground; the flushed faces became placid, the angry looks
died away." Should the Association exercise its clear
right of dismissal, wrote Mr. Parker, afterwards, “I will
never complain; but, so long as the world standeth, I will
not withdraw voluntarily while I consider rights of con-
science at. issue. To withdraw voluntarily would be to
abandon what I think a post of duty." He never did
withdraw, and never was dismissed.
One other test of fellowship remained. At the end of
1844, being just returned from a year's stay in Europe,
Mr. Parker came in order of course to preach the Thurs-
day Lecture" at the First Church in Boston.
This was
an institution dating from early colony days, and in times
of public stir was an occasion of much local importance.
Tradition tells of a diligent hearer who walked weekly from
Newburyport, thirty-five miles, to listen and then to pon-
der upon the discourse during his homeward tramp. It
was at first a stated service of the minister of the First
Church, but had come by custom to be taken in turn
utterly, then I shall take only counsel for to-day, and ask for qualities which
last no longer. I shall care nothing for future generations of mankind; I
shall know no higher law; morality will vanish, and expediency will take its
place; courage for truth's sake, for love's sake, will be a thing no longer
heard of." A Stoic would have said, "If to-morrow I am to perish utterly,
at least I will keep my faith in virtue to-day." This latter, surely, is the
nearer to "absolute religion."
THE BOSTON ASSOCIATION.
CC
214
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
by the members of the Boston Association, who generally
(we may suppose) held it more a duty than a privilege.
To Theodore Parker it was both. Before a crowded and
unwonted audience he spoke, with the same freedom as
before, on "the relation of Jesus to his age and the ages.
The former offense was renewed, and the pastor of the
First Church was officially notified that on any future
occasion the doors of the church would be, at need, forci-
bly closed to Mr. Parker. This compelled a revival of the
question of his membership in the Boston Association,
which made the topic of discussion at three protracted
sessions-this time, in his absence. Two of its members
(as I recall its debates') were prepared to vote for his ex-
clusion, pure and simple. The general feeling expressed
was, however, kind and just. Old memories of protest
against "the exclusive system" made a return to it im-
possible. But it was urged that some step was necessary,
to avoid a possible public scandal in contending for right
of entrance to the church. The simplest course was taken
by requesting the minister of the First Church (Dr. Froth-
ingham) to resume into his own charge the conduct of the
lecture. The lecture continued for some months to be
kept up under the new conditions, and was then dropped
by common consent.
KA
Bates
The one point gained was that, contrary to a very
general expectation, the Unitarian body neither dissolved
nor parted into two fragments on the threatened line of
division. Controversy, misunderstanding, mutual distrust,
could not be avoided. For more than half a generation
there was a grave loss to the body in the angry withdrawal
or neutral adhesion of many of its younger and bolder
members, a grave loss to its visible unity and its moral
1 There are, besides myself, two survivors of the Association as it existed
then, Drs. Cyrus A. Bartol and George E. Ellis.
}
THE BERRY STREET CÒNFERENCE.
215.
strength. The erasure from its calendar of several of its
brightest names may show how great a power of growth
and active energy it forfeited. But the question at stake
was more fundamental and difficult, the religious tradi-
tion and habit involved were more deeply rooted, than
many of its younger adherents could possibly understand.
Besides, the line of division just then drawn across the
path of advance was sure to be come up with and over-
passed by increasing numbers, as the course of opinion
should tend in the direction long foreseen. There re-
mained the greatly outweighing advantage, to the religious
body as such, of keeping unbroken its historic continuity,
with whatever gain might come to it of future opportunity.
The angry sense of desertion on one part, or of injustice
on the other, is long forgotten. The memory of divided
feeling that once seemed past restoring is held out visibly,
to those of a younger day, in the portraits of Channing
and Parker that serenely face each other in our gallery of
worthies, and in the memorial volumes of their writings,
issued by the Unitarian Associations of both America and
Britain.¹
In the long division of opinion that ensued, which so
greatly crippled the forces of the Unitarian body, three
customs especially aided to prevent its falling apart, and
to save it for whatever service it might afterwards be capa-
ble to effect. The first, and perhaps the most effective,
was what is still known as the "Berry Street Conference":
an annual gathering of liberal ministers, who were first
invited to meet at Dr. Channing's vestry, just off Federal
Street. This was and
This was and is a strictly professional gathering,
1 I have given in "Our Liberal Movement" a more extended study (from
personal knowledge) of Theodore Parker's character and work than could
be admitted here, preceded by a chapter on the "fifteen years of contro-
versy" which connect his work with Channing's. He died in Florence,
Italy, May 10, 1860, a little before completing his fiftieth year.
>
216
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
i
without witness and without reporter; having, therefore,
the full freedom of private conversation on all matters of
professional interest. It was, too, a meeting of gentlemen,
in which the amenities of friendly talk were rarely broken.
The rules of debate were of the simplest; the topic of it
was introduced by a more or less formal address, which
might touch upon any aspect of the question of the hour;
in the conduct of it the most advanced radical was on ex-
actly equal terms with the gravest conservative; the fervor
of a rapt idealist, like William Henry Channing, might
call out the equal fervor of an ardent denominational
leader, like Dr. Gannett; one who had sturdily urged
that the Unitarian body must and ought to be divided
might find himself on the same bench with those very
ones he would exclude, or next neighbor to one who
anxiously dreaded lest they might be. In such an alem-
bic as that, of friendly and free however warm discus-
sion, not many years were needed to habituate those
unlikest in opinion to accept the fact of a deeper ground
of union.
CC
A like process went on in the public gatherings of
Anniversary Week," at the end of May, where all mat-
ters of common interest appealed to the common judg-
ment, and where the formal discussions of business were
followed by the cheerful informality of the Thursday's
Festival, which just about this time (1843) became a yearly
custom. As the circle of fellowship widened out with the
denominational growth, it took in an increasing majority
of those whose opinions were not sharply defined on either
side, thus diluting the asperities of local feeling; and a
process of adjustment went on, hardly noticeable from
year to year, but in the course of half a generation mak-
ing all aware that the mental atmosphere was changed.
217
Besides, other topics of hotter and keener interest than
theological debate brought in other lines of sympathy or
dissent. Conservative and radical might change places,
when the discussion shifted to the temperance platform
or the antislavery crusade. And in course of time, as all
the moral forces of the community came to be enlisted
to sustain the nation itself in its life-and-death struggle
with Secession, theological differences and alienations dis-
appeared in the fiercer heat of battle.
THE AUTUMNAL CONVENTION.
t
These influences, all tending to reconciliation and better
common understanding, were helped, again, by the custom
which began at Providence, in 1841, of the "Autumnal
Convention," held alternate with the annual gathering in
Boston, in places so wide apart as Baltimore, Buffalo,
Montreal, and Bangor. The exaggeration and heat of
local controversy were thus tempered in the widening
sense of a common interest and a common life. Difference
of place was favorable to diversity and freedom of expres-
sion. It was, above all other times, the period of moral
and religious oratory. A new spirit went into the discus-
sions, taking occasionally a tone of the finest and most
moving eloquence which the cause of a free theology has
ever, perhaps, called forth. Occasions such as these did
as much as any single thing to invigorate the somewhat
languid sense of one organic life, and prepare the way for
that broader view of religion which must be had if the
liberal body was to survive at all under the changed con-
ditions. Fifteen years of controversy, which had once
seemed likely to rend it in pieces, led in fact to a revival
of denominational unity and vigor, such as would never
have been thought possible by its founders.
With this simplest of denominational equipment, and
under general guidance of the American Unitarian Asso-
218
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNITARIANS.
ciation (“A. U. A."), founded on the 25th of May, 1825,¹
the growth in numbers, though slow, was very constant.
Washington had been added to the list of churches in
1820, Cincinnati and Louisville in 1830, Buffalo in 1831,
New Orleans in 1833, St. Louis in 1834, Chicago in 1836.
At the date we have now reached (1860), 218 of the
churches still on the rolls were already in existence. Of
these, something more than half were originally local par-
ishes, founded under the polity of the Puritan colonists,
and dating before the War of the Revolution. Of the
remainder, ninety were established between the years 1820
and 1860-that is, after the line of separation from the
orthodox Congregationalists had been drawn; and of
these, again, just one half date from the later period, after
1840, while interior difference and controversy were most
active. Especially we note that the widest spread of
Unitarianism, geographically, took place during these
twenty years of divided counsel, when, outside of New
England, new societies were first established in Michigan,
Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas, Indiana, California, and Canada.
This spread was due chiefly, no doubt, to the agencies of
the A. U. A., which had shown its hand liberally from the
start, sending a gift of six hundred dollars in 1827 to
friends in British India. Its resources in money were
extremely small, rarely amounting to as much as $10,000
in a single year. But from the beginning it gave direc-
1 By a chance coincidence, on the same year and day with the British and
Foreign Unitarian Association, in London. The following have been the
presidents of the A. U. A.:
1825-36, Aaron Bancroft, D.D.,
1837-44, Ichabod Nichols, D.D.,
1844-45, Joseph Story, LL.D.,
1845-47, Orville Dewey, D.D.,
1847-51, E. S. Gannett, D.D.,
1851–58, S. K. Lothrop, D.D.,
1858-59, E. B. Hall, D.D.,
1859-62, F. H. Hedge, D.D.,
1862-65, R. P. Stebbins, D.D.,
1865-67, Hon J. G. Palfrey,
1867-70, Hon. T. D. Eliot,
1870-72, Hon. Henry Chapin,
1872-76, Hon. John Wells,
1876-85, H. P. Kidder, Esq.,
1885-,
Hon. Geo. S. Hale.
LACK OF SECTARIAN TEMPER.
219
tion, and such aid as it could, to the work of "church
extension," on the modest scale befitting a religious body
that still refused to regard itself as a sect, and hence lacked
the zeal, energy, and ambition of a sect.
How many, in fact, of those still affiliated with it, whose 7
names were even recorded in its lists, would accept the
title" Unitarian," it is impossible to say. Its most hon-
ored religious leader, Channing, and its most eminent crit-
ical scholar, Norton, were among a large proportion of
its best early representatives at least ten to one, thinks
Dr. Ellis-who protested strongly against accepting any
sectarian name, especially one so narrowed and warped by
controversy. To them the movement they embarked in
was towards a larger intellectual and religious life, free
of the restraints imposed by a doctrinal system they dis-
allowed; and it was justified to their mind by scrupulous
study and exposition of the Christian Scriptures—as far as
possible from the form of "free religion" it seemed tend-
ing to. Anything like denominational machinery, for the
propagating of particular opinions, such men thoroughly
disliked; all the more when freedom of interpretation,
through younger minds inspired by a strange philosophy,
seemed to compromise them also, by claiming alliance
with them under a title they disowned.
So that any-j
thing like large increase of corporate strength to the
movement was blocked by the very men who had been
its early inspirers and guides.
Janj
It happened, accordingly, that among its later best
known leaders some of the ablest, the boldest, and the
most influential were of those who came into its ranks as
new converts, in mature life, with experience gained and
powers ripened by religious methods not its own, without
either the sympathies or the restraints they would have
felt if bred in its tradition. Of itself, a religious move-
220
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. IX.
ment whose motive force is mainly critical is in danger of
becoming frigid and sterile when the glow of controversy
has faded out of it. The Unitarian movement has by no
means escaped this charge, either in others' esteem or in
its own.
As one result, its power of self-propagation has
often lain more with those who have been trained in other
communions, and have entered this with the joy of a new
intellectual freedom, than with children of its own blood,
critics rather than champions of its cause. The freeborn
are sometimes less jealous of their liberty than those who
have obtained it "with a great sum." Dr. Dewey's name.
stands eminent at the head of such loyal converts, without
whose fresh zeal the movement itself might perhaps have
slackened, leaving the banner of its faith to be borne by
other hands under another name.
Two monuments of the period now reviewed may be
noted here. The Divinity School in Meadville, Pa., was
founded by the Huidekoper family in 1844, and was con-
ducted for twelve years under the most devoted and
energetic administration of Dr. Rufus P. Stebbins. Its re-
sources have since been greatly strengthened and enlarged.
Antioch College, at Yellow Springs, O., originally a school
sustained by the "Christian Connection," came about 1850
under Unitarian control; and for eight years the Hon.
Horace Mann, after relinquishing the seat in Congress that
fell to him upon the death of John Quincy Adams, gave
to it, at times without pay, and literally at the cost of his
life, the crowning work of his great career in the cause
of education. Up to the time of these two foundations
Unitarianism was still an exotic, or a work of frontier
pioneering, in the West. And these must count chief
among the influences that gave it, at this time, some faint
claim to regard itself as having already the promise and
the potency of a larger life.
++
V
CHAPTER X.
THE NEW UNITARIANISM.
DURING the years of the Civil War questions of doctrine
or sect were overshadowed by the vaster national interests
at stake. The slow average growth of the Unitarian body
went on about as before. But it is honorably true of all
religious bodies in our country that their best activities
were drawn away to other channels. Their life became
an element in the nation's life, and was given freely to
serve it or to save it. Of the Unitarians it may only be
said that they contributed their share with others, and that
in some ways they were enabled to render special service
of their own.
Of the record in the "Harvard Memorial Biographies "
a large proportion, at least forty out of ninety-five, give
names and memories that belong distinctly to the line of
tradition we have been endeavoring to trace. These were
high examples of a consecrated heroism on the field of
battle, or in camp and hospital. In civic life the service
was equally great. The imperial State of California, with
perhaps all our Pacific Coast, was saved to the Union,
said General Winfield Scott, "by a young man of the
name of King." The aged general was perplexed to un-
derstand the story he so repeated. What it meant was
this: Early in 1860, Thomas Starr King—then, at the age
of thirty-five, of great and growing reputation as a preacher,
a popular lecturer of wide and brilliant fame, of gracious
and wonderful charm as a companion, of beaming wit and
221
222
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
humor, greatly beloved both as minister and as friend-
was called from Boston to the Unitarian pulpit of San
Francisco. Here, under pressure of the conflict he now
took part in, the marvelously clear intelligence and bright
talent of the popular speaker developed into the noblest
eloquence of the political orator. Before this time, a crit-
ical and somewhat fastidious judgment of men and things,
with a certain vein of self-distrust, had held him back from
giving himself, heart and soul, to the great moral conflict
of the day. Now that this conflict became one with that
on which the life of the nation itself was staked, a new
capacity of eloquent passion was found in him. He be-
came the favorite and most effective of popular debaters.
He was the ready champion at every large public gather-
ing. His voice was in demand at political centers widely
scattered. Within four years he had literally given his
life away in that magnificent service; and he died on the
4th of March, 1864, a little past the age of thirty-nine.
4
A work like this was done in Missouri by Dr. William
G. Eliot, of St. Louis. He had begun in 1834 the task,
which seemed almost hopeless then, of building up a
frontier church in that great city. Nearly thirty years of
work, followed up with extraordinary sagacity, persist-
ency, and courage, and with rare singleness of devotion
to all the higher interests of that community, had given
him a position of influence which led a citizen there to
say, "As much as any other man? Dr. Eliot has done
ten times as much as any other ten men to keep Missouri
true to the Union as a free State!" Before his death, in
1887, he had long been most widely known as the chan-
cellor of Washington University, an institution which he
may almost be said to have himself created.
P
Possibly more brilliant and even more essential than
these two was the service rendered by Dr. Henry Whit-
E
H
223
ney Bellows, of New York, in creating and directing the
National Sanitary Commission. This, under the organiz-
ing skill of its secretary, Frederick Law Olmsted, became
a powerful though unofficial arm of the national govern-
ment. It has its own voluminous history as part of the
annals of that time. But its real work grew out of the
personal qualities that Dr. Bellows brought to it: his
cheery, buoyant, indefatigable temper; his wide knowledge
of the world, which put him on equal terms with any
whom he might meet, of whatever civil or military rank,
and might have made him as eminent a diplomatist or
statesman as he was an orator of power; his eager, gener-
ous, and powerful sympathies, going out from a nature
glowing with the warmest human affection, and always
expanding into some new field of service; a temper by
nature dominating and masterful, with an equal fidelity
to the cause he served, that made him at need one of its
humblest and most hard-worked ministers. Throughout
the war there was not a moment when his hand and voice
were not ready at every call; and after the war he was
the indispensable leader of his own religious communion,
opening out to it almost or quite all the new paths of
action in which it has labored since. Full of high courage
as he was, self-reliant in act and eloquent of speech, no
man was more cordial and unreserved in common friend-
ship, or of a more genuine humility of spirit and generos-
ity in judgment, while serving in the ranks with others.
These three names may stand to represent the signal
and eminent service done at this time by beloved leaders
of the Unitarian body. Three other names may illustrate
what was done by some of its ministers in other ways,
whether in the army ranks, or as chaplains in field or
camp. Augustus H. Conant, of Geneva, Ill., who as a
sturdy emigrant had gone to the prairie from Vermont, and
HENRY WHITNEY BELLOWS.
Sel
224
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
had been turned towards the liberal ministry about 1840
by the chance finding of a Unitarian tract, died while
serving heroically as chaplain on the terrible field near
Murfreesboro, in the first days of 1863. Arthur B. Fuller,
of Watertown, Mass., brother of Margaret Fuller and lit-
erary editor of her writings, volunteered to join in a des-
perate charge at Fredericksburg, and was shot down in
the street, December 14, 1862. Frederick N. Knapp, a
man singularly gifted alike with sweetness of nature and
practical intelligence, and a scholar of fine mathematical
ability, ministered personally to more than twenty thou-
sand sick, wounded, or footsore soldiers while in charge of
the Soldiers' Home, near Washington, and had the unique
distinction of being the one man, who had borne neither
sword nor musket, admitted to the military organization.
of surviving veterans of the war. At his burial, in Janu-
ary, 1889, the shops in Plymouth were closed, and busi-
ness was suspended, as for a day of public mourning.
One other service of that time, more modest, claims
a word of mention. When, early in 1862, the "Sea
Islands off the coast of South Carolina were captured by
the national fleet, a colony of teachers, under the govern-
ment authority, went to take in hand the instruction of
the negroes left behind on the plantations. The work was
continued there till the end of the war; and, when Charles-
ton was occupied in the spring of 1865, the schools for
both blacks and whites were at once organized (under
appointment of James Redpath) by Prof. William Francis
Allen, one of the same corps of instructors, who was after-
wards long known in his connection with the University
of Wisconsin, representing there and elsewhere the oldest
and best traditions of the Unitarian faith, till his death, in
December, 1889.
At a special meeting of the A. U. A. held December
:
Bod
*
5
225
7, 1864, it was resolved to call "a convention, to consist
of a pastor and two delegates from each church or parish
in the Unitarian denomination, to meet in the city of New
York, to consider the interests of our cause, and to insti-
tute measures for its good." This convention-the first
formally representative meeting of that body in this coun-
try—was held on the 5th and 6th of the following April,
and was organized as a "National Conference of Unitarian
and other Christian Churches." Its sessions were held
regularly in September or October of the alternate years
from 1866 to 1886, the last seven being at Saratoga. To
avoid disturbance from the biennial political campaign, the
date was changed, the Conference meeting in 1889, 1891,
and 1894, while in 1893 it yielded to the claim of an "In-
ternational Congress of Unitarians" held in Chicago, in
connection with the "World's Parliament of Religions," as
a feature in the great Columbian Exposition of that year.
The National Conference is understood to have been
both suggested and organized by the mind of Dr. Bellows,
who was at this time the one unquestioned leader of the
body he belonged to. His experience during the war, con-
firmed by a few months' stay in California in 1864, had
deepened his conviction that the popular religion of the
country was rapidly coming to be both liberal in theology
and non-sectarian in spirit. He apparently looked for the
sudden unfolding of a consciousness, in the national mind
at large, of one religious life shared in such a spirit; and
the duty of the hour seemed to him to be the preparation
for its coming. The great World's Parliament of 1893
has been sometimes spoken of as the realizing of that
dream. The religion that should thus come to pass would
not take the name "Unitarian," which properly signifies
an opinion, not a faith. It would probably exist under
many names and forms; but its life would be in harmony
THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE.
Plat
226
[CHAP. X.
THE `UNITARIANS.
with that faith as he conceived it, not sectarian, not de-
nominational. The organized form would be needed for
practical service only: it should not signify, not even sug-
gest, a creed. His own opinion, however devoutly held,
was as little the test of such an order of faith as any other
man's opinion. For himself, he was an eager champion
of the Unitarian mode of belief as such. It would, he
thought, do more than any other to define the type of a
coming American religion. But in holding it his associ-
ates should bear in mind that they held it in trust, as
pledge of some greater thing.
In thinking thus, however, Dr. Bellows clung with great
warmth of affection to the spirit, the belief, and even the
phrases of the elder piety which had nourished his own
life. He never, in fact, lost a certain humility of spirit in
the presence or in the memory of his own religious guides,
which checked, sometimes (it would seem) capriciously, the
great boldness and vigor of his generous self-assertion.
His hand is probably to be traced in the wording of those
very phrases of the preamble which brought the only dis-
cord in the counsels of the time-as if they somehow
implied a creed, and so gainsaid his own words in asser-
tion of perfect mental freedom. The preamble reads:
Whereas the great opportunities and demands for Chris-
tian labor and consecration at this time increase our sense
of the obligations of all disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ
to prove their faith" by self-denial and devoted service,
"therefore," etc. It was in vain to urge that these words
are in their form not a creed, but the statement of a
motive; that (as declared in the tenth article) "they are
no authoritative test of Unitarianism, and are not intended
to exclude from our fellowship any who, while differing
from us in belief, are in general sympathy with our pur-
poses and practical aims." Danger lurks even in a pre-
"C
J
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE.
227
amble.
To some there seemed a hint of sectarian narrow-
ness in the name "Christian." "May we not," they asked,
"consort religiously with freethinkers or with Jews?"
To others the words appeared, if not a creed, at least to
imply condescension or disparagement towards those "dif-
fering from us in belief," tolerating their fellowship rather
than frankly greeting it. And thus, while the National
Conference proved incomparably the most important con-
sulting body the Unitarians have ever known,-absolutely
free in counsel, far more effective than any other agency
for harmony and working force,-its first effect was to stir
a secession of what might well have proved a most valu-
able ally.
G
K
The issue was fought out at the first adjourned session
of the Conference, in what was whimsically called "the
battle of Syracuse." The foremost advocate of the offend-
ing phrase was James Freeman Clarke, who gave to the
words their most generous interpretation, but was equally
tenacious of the Christian tradition they express. His
early experience of seven years' devoted frontier service
in Kentucky, at the beginning of his ministry; his still
earlier alliance with the origin of the Transcendental
movement, and intimate friendship with its leaders; his
fine intelligence, enriched by letters, art, society, and
travel; his rare capacity of religious sympathy, which
made it his special task and service to illustrate the har-
monies of widely varying faiths,-all these might seem to
pledge him to the most advanced assertions of intellect-
ual liberty. But his studies of speculative theology had
pledged him still more strongly to seek in a transfigured
Christian dogmatics the final and absolute statement of
religious truth, and to find in its terms the best setting
forth of facts objectively real, so that he did not willingly
part with any of its phrases. Besides, there showed in
228
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
him at times a combative temper-finely exhibited in
some recent phases of political debate-with a courage of
attack or defense, generally disguised under a kindly cour-
tesy of manner, that bore him promptly to the front in any
war of words. In the debate at Syracuse he easily carried
the overwhelming assent of the audience he addressed,
already inclined that way. The words of the preamble
stood, accordingly, as a manifesto of adhesion to historic
Christianity. But, as a counter-manifesto, the "Free
Religious Association" came presently into being; and
the Unitarian body lost, for the time at least, the support
that would have been given it by the great moral and in-
tellectual force represented (among those no longer living)
in the wayward, versatile, and delightful fancy and the
fine religious and poetic genius of John Weiss (1818-79),
or in the grave yet glowing and intense ethical spirit of
David Atwood Wasson (1823-87).
Meanwhile, the former doctrinal issues had been com-
pletely overshadowed and dwarfed by the one great.
tragedy of the Civil War. They were, in parliamentary
phrase, "laid upon the table," and they have never been
taken from it since. It appears to be impossible for a
later generation to understand how grave those issues
were once supposed to be. "All the battles of theology,'
Dr. Putnam had once said in his pulpit, "are drawn bat-
tles; all its questions are open questions." With his cus-
tomary vigor he had once maintained the argument of
the "
Supernaturalist" party; but before his death he
surprised his congregation by assuring them that that
argument did not touch the substance of Christianity.
The mental change thus brought about in one of the most
conservative minds of the body was mainly due to two
causes. One was the order of scientific thought that
came in with the study of Darwin and Spencer, by which
Stud
}}
FREDERIC HENRY HEDGE.
he, with all intelligent persons, had been strongly attracted.
The other was the working out of a vein of religious
philosophy which may be traced, in part, to the influence
or the survival of Transcendentalism. To interpret and
assimilate that philosophy made now the special task of
the intellectual leaders in the Unitarian movement, of
whom Dr. Hedge was conspicuously the chief. His vol-
ume entitled "Reason in Religion" was by far the ablest
and most influential expression of the order of thought
here indicated. It was, in fact, to many minds a guide-
book of the process by which dogma passes through met-
aphysics on the way to become pure symbol of a truth of
mental experience.
229
Frederic Henry Hedge (1805-90) had the singular
advantage, for those days, of a school training as a boy in
Germany, so that the German idiom, in thought as well
as speech, was to him a second mother-tongue. With
high rank as a general scholar, he was widely familiar with
the literature of metaphysics. He was master of a grave
and studied eloquence, with a diction, at times, of rare
poetic beauty. A faithful and laborious service of thirty-
six years in his profession had put him as an intellectual
leader as clearly at the head of the liberal pulpit in Amer-
ica as his illustrious contemporary James Martineau stood
in England. He had been educated in a period when
rhetorical form counted greatly more than now towards a
writer's general eminence, a period when all the best in-
tellectual work among us was shaped by the exigencies of
popular speech rather than by the severe logic of the
schools; when even grave chapters of history, theology,
or metaphysics¹ became a series of effective popular ad-
dresses, rather than steps in a methodical essay. The
argument of "Reason in Religion" is contained in a
1 For example, in Dr. Walker's magnificent Lowell Lectures of 1842.
.6
乘
​1
230
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
•
sequence of discourses, each rounded and complete in
itself; and thus it develops a single order of thought with
culminating effect, but with little of logical coherence.
It may be contended, indeed, that the argument was the
more readily grasped by those to whom it was addressed,
and so was the more effective, because delivered in this
form; because, too, it was here and there cast in phrases
that stamped themselves on the memory with the pun-
gency and point of epigram. The alternative "Reason
or Rome" tells more pithily than a labored paragraph the
drift of modern speculation.
Heaven is the sum of
ascending spirits, hell the sum of descending spirits," sets
forth the law of retribution, as he conceived it, better than
many an argumentative essay. "A movement is strong
by what it includes, an organism by what it excludes,"
shows more clearly than a detailed explanation the strength
and weakness of the body he served loyally until his death.
Almost unconsciously, the tone and method were taken
up by a whole generation of inquiring minds, and have be-
come, on the side of pure thought, the most potent factor
in determining the quality of later Unitarian doctrine.
(C
The service rendered by Dr. Hedge in this direction
was the more effective because rendered in large part
through the "Christian Examiner," of which he became
editor in 1857. He sought to make of it an independent
journal of religion and letters; less than ever, the organ
of any one school of theological opinion. Many of the
essays just described appeared first in its pages; and the
educating work begun in it under his direction was con-
tinued in it by other hands. During the war its course
was strongly controlled by the turn of public events, when
it aimed to interpret or to influence the steps of that moral
and political revolution going on under the surface of the
struggle, and when political or social ethics were of more
:
231
account to us than ecclesiastical life. In the general ex-
pansion of mind that followed the war, when the field of
action so suddenly widened out before the Unitarian body,
the "Examiner" was transferred from Boston to New
York; and here, under Dr. Bellows's guidance, it aimed
to do the work at once of a denominational organ and of
an independent journal, absolutely open and free to the
advanced criticism of the day. In this effort it lost the
cordial support of one part without securing the full confi-
dence of the other; and, though sustained with fair suc-
cess as a private enterprise, it was absorbed into the fresh
and more popular magazine "Old and New," at the end
of 1869.1
WIDENED RANGE OF ACTION.
1
Under the new impulse now given, the Unitarian body
widened out on a scale and with a vigor which nothing in
its earlier history had led one to look for in it. The yearly
fund at the service of the A. U. A. rose at one step from
a sum under ten thousand dollars to more than a hundred
thousand, under the sagacious counsel of Mr. Henry P.
Kidder, and the energetic effort of its president, Dr. Rufus
P. Stebbins. From this time on it enjoyed for five years
the service of its beloved and devoted secretary, Charles
Lowe, who in 1874, a few months before his death, estab-
lished the "Unitarian Review," to be an ally and inter-
preter of its work. Among the first results of this ex-
pansion, the policy was adopted of planting outposts at
important university towns. This was done first in 1865
at Ann Arbor, Mich., where the State University had
gathered a body of students larger than that at any other
2
St
1 A full statement of the circumstances and reasons of this change may be
found in the Unitarian Review" of April, 1887, p. 363.
2 The Unitarian Review" was discontinued at the end of 1891. The
next year "The New World
The New World" was established as an organ of the higher
liberal scholarship, and has been aided by many contributions from foreign
writers.
232
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
1
American college. Such outposts now exist in at least
twelve different States, making a most serviceable propa-
ganda in a wide field of influence. This effect was espe-
cially marked in the case of Ann Arbor, through the
exceedingly able courses of class instruction given by
Rev. Charles H. Brigham (1820-79), who retired from his
charge, broken in health, in 1877. In Wisconsin, also, a
rapid and very strong liberal development within the last
fifteen years-consecrated now by the bright name of
Henry Doty Maxson, who died in 1892-was due to the
same wise policy.
In October, 1877, was held in Springfield, Mass., the
first session of the "Ministers' Institute," for what would
now be called "university extension" in the field of theol-
ogy. The institute was gathered, by invitation and under
the general direction of Dr. Bellows, to do for professional
students that part of the work of a religious body most
apt to be overlooked under the press of routine work or
neglected in its widening missionary enterprises. The
term "theology" was taken in its very widest sense, to
include all knowledge that bears on the advance of relig-
ious thought. The lines followed at this gathering were
carefully planned beforehand, marking out the four divi-
sions of the field, to each of which it was at first intended
that one full day should be devoted; and a doubt arising
on the subject was determined by throwing the doors open
to whoever might choose to enter. No discussions have
in fact proved more attractive to the outside public than
those which it was first thought to reserve for scholars'
hearing. The topics were these: 1. The higher criticism
(so called) of the Bible, illustrated at this time in studies
of the Old Testament after the school of Kuenen; 2.
Development of doctrine, as shown in the transition from
the Old Testament to the New, and in a criticism of the
$1
7
233
Pauline writings; 3. A discourse on Evolution by Prof.
John W. Draper, of New York, supplemented by a paper
from Dr. Thomas Hill on Erasmus Darwin, including a
critique of certain points in the later Darwinism; 4. Re-
ligious and scientific Ethics, especially as applied to
social problems. A philosophic essay on Personality"
by Dr. Hedge is included in one of the later volumes of
his published writings; and a brilliantly characteristic
religious discourse was delivered by Rev. William Henry
Channing.
(C
THE MINISTERS' INSTITUTE.
Among the names just mentioned are those of two men,
of very marked and peculiar quality, who now for the last
time (it is believed) addressed a large representative gath-
ering of their own religious body. William Henry Chan-
ning (1810-84) was the preacher of most fervid and purely
inspired genius of the bright dawn of Transcendentalism :
capable at moments of an eloquence, electric and superb,
such as is rarely heard from human lips; a mystic, whose
glowing speech seemed often to soar in a range where
thought less rapt could scarcely follow, yet in simplicity
and sweetness of personal intercourse a child; desiring to
walk in humblest ways and do lowliest service, making his
New York pulpit a popular platform of human rights and
duties, and toiling in the modest task of conducting a
cheap journal of Christian socialism; who came home
from an admired career in England, that he might serve
his country in any open way throughout the war, whether
to idealize and consecrate the struggle as chaplain of the
House, or minister to the sick and wounded men crowded
in the hospitals at Washington, where his own church
was the first to be put to that pious use. Thomas Hill
(1818-91) was a man conservative in theology and ordi-
narily reticent of speech, in whom religious humility of
spirit and intellectual self-assertion made a combination
234
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. X.
very marked; a man of rare versatility in the ranges of
accurate science, being a mathematician of high rank, a
naturalist widely trained, and a mechanician of extraordi-
nary skill; seeking his companionships among gifted men
of science rather than in the ranks of his own profession,
to the great loss of younger men in it who ought to have
known him better; chiefly eminent in the work of higher
education, as president of Antioch College and afterwards
of Harvard University.1
These groups and names show the meaning and intent
of the Ministers' Institute at its first founding. The name
of Professor Draper, in particular, shows how widely its
doors were open to topics and teachers, as well as hearers,
quite outside the purely professional and even the Chris-
tian field. As later representing faiths not Christian,
Rabbi Gottheil, of New York, argued in an extended ad-
dress at Providence, in 1879, that Jesus was never rejected
by his own people, but was the victim of political passion
and terror; Protap Chunder Mozoomdar, from Calcutta,
speaking for the Brahmo Somaj, illustrated in a most
eloquent address at Lowell, in 1883, the mingled good and
ill of Christianity as found in British India; Felix Adler,
in 1887, from the point of view of ethical culture discoursed
with his fine insight on what have been hitherto regarded
as phases of "Christian ethics." Thus the Institute, while
in one way an offshoot of strictly Unitarian growth, has in
its intellectual outlook been quite beyond the range of any
denominational interest. It has often heard, or sought to
hear, the voice of men from other Christian bodies; and
it has always solicited the teaching of science, that knows
nothing of party lines in the religious world. Its sessions
have generally been held on alternate years with those of
་
1 Some of his personal and mental traits are described in the "Unitarian
Review" for December, 1891, pp. 463–470.
235
the National Conference, to which it is in some sense sup-
plementary, but more truly an independent ally.¹
1
So wide a welcome to great diversities of opinion, with
so feeble a restraining power at the center, opened the
way, inevitably, to considerable looseness of speculation,
and even to a certain lawlessness, inviting scandal, in some
men's theory and practice of the religious life. Under
such influences, Emerson became a far more potent leader
of thought than either Channing or Parker: Emerson,
with his brilliant defiance of conventionalism in the treat-
ment of religious topics, but without the austere purity of
tone and the profound ethical feeling which in him were
the winnowed growth of the finest Puritan ancestry. The
phrase "transcendental wild oats," happily employed by
Louisa Alcott to describe her recollections of certain rue-
ful experiments at farming in Utopia, might well be ap-
plied to much that masqueraded as Christian doctrine,
especially in remoter districts, where the restraints of a
graver tradition were less observed. These escapades
were oftenest innocently meant, and harmless; such effer-
vescence as Kingsley has described in Yeast." Some-
times, however, they were the token or forewarning of a
moral peril; since, in the rapid external spread of Unita-
rianism (or what called itself such), it would happen that
supposed converts from more rigid creeds proved to be
irresponsible adventurers, who took the name as a mere
cloak of license: such converts, we may fancy, as those
whom Paul encountered at Corinth. How to deal with this
new symptom, without authority of ecclesiastical discipline,
and with nothing of the check that would be given or
promised by the simplest external rule of faith, became a
(C
TRANSCENDENTAL WILD OATS.”
Jap
1 Its meetings were held in 1879 at Providence, in 1881 at Princeton,
Mass., in 1883 at Lowell, in 1885 at Newport, in 1887 at Princeton, in 1888
at Worcester, in 1890 at Salem, in 1892 at Newton.
1
Z
"
THE UNITARIANS.
236
[CHAP. X.
problem of some difficulty. Either of those expedients
would affront the best Unitarian tradition; while to wait
the slow effect of time, and the wholesome working out
of spiritual affinities, might in the view of many seem too
grave a peril to be risked.
The question so offered was brought to the front in
the spring of 1886, in a small pamphlet entitled "The
Issue in the West." The Western Conference, embracing
almost the whole valley region of the Central States, was
far the broadest in extent, and made up of far the most
numerous and diverse elements, of all the local bodies
allied with the National Conference. Moreover, there was
a sense of local importance, and a common ground of
character and interest, which (while the National Confer-
ence had no treasury or agencies for separate action)
seemed to require for the West funds and executive.
machinery of its own. Thus the question, as now brought
forward, was limited to that one field. The points it raised
must be decided by the Western Conference at its annual
session, without concert of action in the East. This ses-
sion was held at Cincinnati, in May, 1886.
The solution proposed, when reduced to its simplest
terms, took the form of a resolve, "that the primary ob-
ject of this Conference is to diffuse the knowledge and
promote the interests of pure Christianity." Now, with-
out question, the body of the conference was made up of
ardent theists and devout Christians-accepting their own
definition of those terms. But to put the assertion of
either position in the organic act that constituted the con-
ference itself, so as to make it, really or seemingly, a con-
dition of its membership, appeared to the majority a vio-
lation of the absolute mental freedom which was a vital
feature in the organization. Theism, which to some minds
is implied in every phrase declaring a moral order in
:
237
human life, would surely, when asserted as dogma, lead to
troublesome and distracting definitions, alien to the pur-
pose had in view. The name Christian" might seem to
cast a stigma upon some of their own number, even, of
Jewish or other non-Christian antecedents. The proposal
was accordingly met by the counter-resolve, adopted by a
large majority, that the conference "conditions its fellow-
ship on no dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to
join it to help establish truth, righteousness, and love in
the world." These two counter-positions, thus narrowly
distinguished, define what was known as "the Western
Issue." The action at Cincinnati was supplemented the
following year, at Chicago, by a pretty extended “state-
ment of things commonly believed among us,” which was
a generous and eloquent setting forth of a far more full
and elevated code of belief than could possibly have been
included in the terms of any formal creed. The difference
and even alienation occasioned by this act came (as was
hoped) to an end in 1892, when it was resolved that the
conference" hereby declares it to be its common aim and
purpose to promulgate a religion in harmony with the
foregoing preamble and statement."
£
1
THE WESTERN ISSUE.
"C
Among the objects effected at the sessions of the
National Conference have been the planning and urging
of special tasks too large and costly to be properly taken
into the lines of current expenditure. These sessions
came to be very numerously attended, the formal delega-
tion having been much more than doubled by the friendly
throng; and they have been occasions of great social de-
light as well as religious impression. The spirit of the
gathering has responded quickly and warmly to appeals
that could have reached general sympathy in no other
way; while the lines of action it recommended have been
followed up with a generosity which the elder Unitarians
238
[CHAP. X.
THE UNITARIANS.
were wont to bestow only on objects outside their own
communion. A college, a hospital, a denominational
school, or religious enterprise other than Unitarian might
look for their bounty, and seldom looked in vain; but
they shunned even the appearance of what might be
charged against them as working for sectarian ends.¹
Now, however, with some little demur, they gave heed
to them of their own household. Costly churches have
been built by common effort in Washington, New York,
and elsewhere; a Loan Fund of considerable amount aids
the same work in a wider field; provision has been made
for the divinity schools in Cambridge and Meadville, in
sums not varying far from one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars each; a still larger amount has been devoted to
construct a building ample for denominational or general
uses in Boston; help has been given to the straitened
churches of Hungary and France, and to the Unitarian
College of Transylvania; a missionary work of instruction
has been set on foot in Japan, at an annual cost equal to
the entire denominational revenue of thirty years ago.
These enterprises have felt the check, doubtless, of old
prejudice and of a prudence sometimes anxious; but they
have been far less embarrassed by theological differences
or mutual distrust than might be feared. The last, in par-
ticular, was a new departure into a field doubtful and un-
explored. A fund of moderate amount given for such use
had for nearly thirty years maintained a single missionary,
Rev. Charles H. A. Dall, in Calcutta, where his fine schol-
arship and devoted service, till his death, in 1886, were
of no effect to gather a native church, but were spent in
greatly needed tasks of primary instruction, made after-
Jul
1 "
Unitarians have given millions to colleges, academies, libraries, philan-
thropic and charitable institutions, from whom it would have been impossible
to draw a single dollar for the Association."-G. E. Ellis, "A Half-Century
of the Unitarian Controversy," Introduction, p. xiv.
239
wards needless (it was thought) by the improved gov-
ernment schools. In 1887 Hon. Horace Davis, of San
Francisco (afterwards president of the University of Cali-
fornia), was strongly impressed, during a stay of some
months in eastern Asia, by the seeming ineffectiveness of
Christian missions founded on dogma, and by the apparent
openness of the native mind to influences which, without
dogmatism or controversy, should convey the purely ethi-
cal and spiritual teachings of Christianity. In these he
saw the opportunity and duty of the Unitarian body,
which had so completely outgrown the controversial stage
of religious thought. Chiefly through his urgency, by
public address or written appeal,¹ the matter first gained
hearing. The effort which followed had from the begin-
ning the cordial welcome of those whom it addressed.
Within six months the Japanese public read in its native
speech, diffused through its own newspapers of widest
circulation, the exposition, argument, or appeal addressed
to it by aid of young students who had had their college
training in America. After two years' trial the enterprise
was expanded to a college of theology and moral science,
having at the present time six instructors-three being
native, three sustained from the United States-besides
the friendly coöperation of liberal scholars from Germany,
and of others from faiths not Unitarian. The college is
just now (1893) seeking aid to build a permanent struct-
ure for its educational work, that which it occupied hav-
ing been destroyed in a conflagration at Tokio.
Except for the new denominational building, the largest
sum raised among Unitarians for a single object has been
an endowment fund of something over $140,000, com-
pleted in 1878, for the Harvard Divinity School. The
school, though hitherto held and controlled as well as
1 See, in particular, the "Unitarian Review" for November, 1887.
MISSION COLLEGE IN JAPAN.
<<
240
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. X
wholly sustained by them, was at once declared unde-
nominational, to conform with the general policy of the
university. Both instructors and students hold their con-
nection with it quite independent of any theological ante-
cedents or tests. Such differences are lost, or overlooked,
in the common study of "a scientific theology." This
term includes the higher (or historic) criticism of the Bible,
the comparative study of religions, intellectual philosophy,
and scientific ethics, together with such allied courses of
instruction as other departments of the university may
offer. The school is understood to be especially strong
in Oriental learning (including Hebrew, Arabic, and As-
syrian), and in the study of religious or philosophical sys-
tems of the East. Among its students are nearly always
found several natives of Japan, with a considerable number of
graduates from other schools of theology. The "regular"
members of the last entering class (1893) number twenty.
The university has thus amply atoned for whatever in-
justice may have been done, in its name, in the early years.
of the century. Further, in keeping with this reconstruc-
tion of the Divinity School, the College Church, estab-
lished under President Kirkland and necessarily Unitarian
in its affiliations, was discontinued in the summer of 1882.
In its place a system of religious instruction was now de-
vised, and has been carried out with signal success, in
which the ordinary religious exercises, of both Sundays.
and week-days, are conducted by preachers of high stand-
ing chosen each year from at least three of the leading
Protestant bodies; while Jew, Catholic, and Hindoo have
been invited on special occasions to address, and have
addressed, the students in Appleton Chapel. It is by
their own ecclesiastical rule that Catholic preachers are
debarred from taking their place with others, as solicited,
in the ordinary exercises of the college pulpit.
Vig
Gal
+
RECENT NECROLOGY.
241
Contemporary with the changes now recorded, the Uni-
tarian body has experienced the loss, within the past
twenty years or a little more, of almost all its well-known
leaders who had survived from the earlier period. Dr.
Gannett, long its most devoted champion, and one of the
most eloquent of its preachers, perished in a railroad dis-
aster at Revere in 1871. President Walker, its weightiest
logician and strongest teacher of ethics, died, at the age
of eighty, in 1874; Dr. Putnam, its preacher of most brill-
iant and sustained local reputation, in 1877, at seventy
-years. Dr. Bellows, its most sagacious organizer, its best
beloved leader, and its most distinguished representative
before the larger public, died at sixty-eight; Dr. Dewey,
perhaps its profoundest religious genius, and the eloquent
Nestor of its pulpit, at eighty-eight; also, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, in his eightieth year, whose great and unique
fame in a wider field had never made him a stranger to
his early associates-these three in 1882. Dr. Stebbins, to
whose courage and zeal were due, more than to any other,
its wider propagation in the West, died in 1886; Dr. Eliot,
who as its first and noblest missionary carried out its
pioneer work on a grand scale in the Mississippi Valley,
in 1887; James Freeman Clarke, through whom its gospel
had a broader and kindlier reception in the popular heart
than through any other, in 1888; Dr. Hedge, eminently
chief among those who led it towards the larger intellectual
interpretation of its word, in 1890; Prof. Andrew P. Pea-
body, who more than any other made its religious spirit to
be felt and welcomed in the broad circle of other Chris-
tian bodies, in 1893, at eighty-two, from the effect of
accident. Among its elder teachers, Dr. Furness alone
remains, in his ninety-second year, the lifelong friend of
Emerson and Hedge, whose heart is too young and his
spirit too joyous to admit any of the sad epithets of age,
M
(
[CHAP. X.
242
THE UNITARIANS.
•
I
true through the evil days of half a century ago to his
high faith in human freedom, the beloved and genial inter-
preter of the Christian gospel record to an entire genera-
tion. Thus that body has come, almost suddenly, to feel
that the period of controversy and of preparation is past,
and that, for whatever of gain or loss, a New Unitarian-
ism holds the field.
As at present organized, the Unitarian body is repre-
sented, first, by its larger central agencies, the American
Unitarian Association (now a corporate body controlled
by delegates from the churches) and the National Confer-
ence, meeting at stated intervals for counsel and com-
munion; by twenty-five local conferences, made up of
delegates representing groups of churches, and meeting
commonly several times in the year (three of these are
on the Pacific Coast, and one covers the extensive field of
the Southern States); by five "Alliances," or other bodies.
for Christian work, organized and controlled by women;
by thirty-two organizations formed for various special ob-
jects, local or general, under the names of "club," "guild,
"association," or the like, besides those professional or
educational, These all illustrate, in various ways, the
great change that has come to pass since the time when
Unitarianism meant what was merely theological, profes-
sional, or controversial.
-
W
dag
1
The change has brought it at least to attempt the prac-
tice of a religion wholly free of ecclesiasticism or dogma;
in equal alliance with every form of modern thought or
learning; open to criticism or to instruction from every
quarter; aiming, without prejudice of discipline or creed,
to give its own interpretation of a Divine kingdom upon
earth. Its history is the record of its advance from the
position of challenging-often feebly, willfully, and pas-
sionately the established creeds of Christendom, towards
243
that of accepting, as sooner or later it must come to do
understandingly, whatever may be meant in the purely
scientific phrase "positive religion," as opposed to that
which is doctrinal or institutional. As one of its inter-
preters has said, "We have walked out into the open day-
light, and for us there is no going back."
The name "Unitarian" may not seem adequate to
cover so large a range and variety of opinion as is here im-
plied. It was accepted reluctantly and under strong pro-
test by those who led in the religious movement it denotes,
who wished to be known as belonging, individually, to
the "liberal wing" of New England Congregationalism.
Many would greatly prefer that now. Especially the
name has been held unfit to be taken as a corporate
name, to describe a church, or the larger communion
made up of many churches. In fact, of the four hundred
and forty-four churches on the list in 1893, less than two
hundred (197) are known by that name in their proper
title. On its roll of five hundred and ten ministers (of
whom twenty are women) more than one hundred were
educated in other forms of belief, and may not be pre-
sumed familiar with the Unitarian tradition, or any way
attached to it. What leads them to accept the name is
the same reason that prevailed over the objections felt at
first not at all that it defines an opinion in which they
are all agreed, but that it denotes that very undefined and
expanding movement of religious thought, which can be
interpreted only by a proper understanding of its history
and antecedents.
THE NAME “UNITARIAN.”
St
One chief value of the name at the present day is that it
serves as a symbol, or standard, recognized by a far wider
range of peoples, dialects, and minds than the scant show-
ing of its organized forces might seem to promise. Under
the same title, and under like general conditions, are gath-
Jed
244
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. X.
ered nearly three hundred and fifty (344) congregations
in the British Islands. These are well understood to rep-
resent, in the main, that same non-dogmatic form of Chris-
tianity towards which the movement we have traced has
been gradually led. What has been said of the Harvard
Divinity School may be said in almost the same terms of
Manchester New College, their chief seat of instruction,
now established at Oxford, which has been made illus-
trious in the past by the names of Kenrick, Tayler, and
Martineau, and now embraces the freshest European and
Oriental learning. Two points are especially noticeable
in defining their present position: a tenacious loyalty to
the best traditions of English Unitarian Dissent, and a
keen sympathy with that tendency in politics which aims
at public education, justice, and a better social order.
Under special embarrassments, their church life has been
comparatively cramped and feeble; but in the wider field
they have been honorably known as a positive force in the
intellectual and moral sphere.
In France about two fifths of the Protestant body are
well recognized as Unitarian, though not formally sepa-
rated from the rest, and without break of the historic con-
tinuity that links them with old heroic memories of the
Reformation.¹ Their two theological colleges, in Paris and
at Nîmes, with a humble but very devout community in
the Landes near Bordeaux, testify to their learning and
their piety. Prof. Bonet-Maury enumerates, as chief feat-
ures in their work: (1) the faculty of Liberal Theology
established at Paris in 1877 (to take the place of that at
1:
Ba
1 The Rev. Athanase Coquerel (père) spoke of himself to me, in 1855,
as legitimate successor of the Huguenot leaders of the sixteenth century.
The orthodox majority is large and dominant; but dissenters from its creed
have never lost their place or standing in the body. See an article by Rev.
Narcisse Cyr on The Reformed Churches of France," in the Unitarian
Review" for June, 1889, p. 518.
"(
wh
1
245
Strasburg), which "has remained faithful to the liberal
principles of its Alsatian mother, has constantly refused to
subscribe to the synod of 1872, and still preserves for its
pupils the independence of their opinions"; (2) a relig-
ious section, under Albert Réville, in the "École pratique
des hautes études," which includes Catholic, Jew, and
Buddhist along with Protestant Christians; (3) a liberal
Press, whose most significant product is the great Bible
commentary of Edouard Reuss, in twelve volumes, "a
colossal monument dedicated to the literary, moral, and
religious worth of the Scriptures"; (4) a lay organiza-
tion, or standing board, directed by leading jurists, which
"has since 1872 supported the poorer and feebler churches
in the departments, and sheltered them from the encroach-
ments and illegal attempts of the orthodox majority"; (5)
representative conferences held at Paris, Nîmes, or Mont-
auban, which have secured important advantages to the
liberal minority, especially-by the division of Paris into
eight ecclesiastical districts-control of the "Oratoire,"
the chief Protestant church of France. The names of
M. Waddington and Jules Ferry are cited among the
statesmen who have shown an active interest in the
founding of institutes for free religious education.
Among other Continental nations the following evi-
dences may be given. The late Professor Chastel, of
Geneva, author of the most considerable church history
composed from the Unitarian point of view, was a venera-
ble witness how far that ancient city had departed from
its older tradition and gone over to the liberal name and
faith. In northern Italy an active Unitarian propaganda
has for many years been conducted by Professor Ferdi-
nando Bracciforti, of the Polytechnic college in Milan, and
has had friendly recognition from the royal family. The
long-established Unitarian community in Transylvania still
ON THE CONTINENT.
246
THE UNITARIANS.
[CHAP. X.
exists, as one of the important educational and religious
forces of eastern Hungary. In Germany the latitude of
speculation admitted by the official Lutheranism gives less
emphasis to the name; but several theologians of eminence
have both maintained cordial personal relations with Uni-
tarian scholars in America, and have shared as collaborators.
in their later work. The Dutch school of biblical criticism,
so well represented in Leyden by the late Professor Kue-
nen, may be said to be fully naturalized in their later
teaching; while a large part of the theological erudition
or speculation current in Continental schools would in
England or America be described simply as Unitarian.
What effect this widening and diversifying of the asso-
ciations belonging to that name may have on the work or
fortunes of the body that has borne it for the last eighty
years in America, it would be idle to conjecture. As
many disclaimed it in the beginning, so there are those
who think it is already outgrown and should be set aside.
That point it would be futile to argue here. A different
view, and probably the prevailing view, is that summed
up in the following words of the most genial interpreter of
some later passages in the movement that has here been
traced: "The new Unitarianism is neither sentimental nor
transcendental nor traditional. It calls itself Unitarian
simply because that name suggests freedom and breadth
and progress and elasticity and joy. Another name might
do as well, perhaps be more accurately descriptive. But
no other would be so impressive, or on the whole so hon-
orable."1
1 O. B. Frothingham, “Boston Unitarianism," p. 267.
to
•
A
1
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.
The following letter, here inserted by permission of Dr. Mar-
tineau, was written to accompany some marginal suggestions on
pages 149–168, which have been adopted in the revision of the
plates. It constitutes an independent chapter, or commentary,
of special importance to the understanding of the period there
included.
35 GORDON SQUARE, LONDON, W. C.,
January 13, 1894.
Dear Dr. Allen: I have read your proof-sheet with the greatest interest,
and return it with a few marginal notes, indicating the only points at which,
as it appears to me, the mode of statement admits of somewhat more preci-
sion. These refer to matters of detail, and will, I trust, sufficiently explain
themselves.
I am struck, however, with a difficulty which you have to encounter in
prefixing to an "American Church History," which is fairly concurrent with
American history of Doctrine, an account of our English history of the corre-
sponding Doctrinal development, which ran its course, as its literature shows
(witness Locke, Clarke, Whiston, Firmin, Penn, Emlyn), on several eccle-
siastical lines, and never gathered itself up into an organized church at all.
Prior to the date (Lindsey's change) from which you start, the Unitarian
theology had its chief home in our English Presbyterian congregations of
Baxterian descent and in the Dublin and Munster Presbyteries, because their
fundamental principle of Christian fellowship was devotion to the service of
God, in the spirit of Christ, unconditioned by any pledge, actual or tacit, lim-
iting the varieties or checking the development of theological opinion. This
utter repudiation of any "orthodoxy" as affecting the disciples' peace with
God threw the whole emphasis of the fellow-worshipers' union on righteous-
ness of life and the graces of the Christian mind, and rendered possible the
coexistence of many shades of doctrinal thought within one communion.
This feature of doctrinal catholicity rendered the congregations which it
characterized very attractive to Protestant exiles from France, Geneva, and
Holland, who had suffered from the rigor of Calvinistic tests at home. It
drew them especially to Dublin, where there had been nothing to hinder the
continuance of the Presbyterian order of church government; whereas in
England this order, after being suspended for a generation-between the Act
247
J
154
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNİTARİANS.
*
C
denominational history. This will be best shown in a series
of representative names.
Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), for forty years an intimate
friend and correspondent of Lindsey, may be said almost
alone to have shaped the system of opinion by which the
Unitarianism of that period is best known. At the same
time, with a fluency and versatility of composition almost
unrivaled, he created a considerable body of literature,
scientific as well as religious, much of which has value to
this day. The forty-eight volumes of his works omit a
considerable part of what he published in his lifetime.
Besides these, a mass of correspondence, innumerable ex-
periments, studies, and observations in natural science, and
a very laborious career as teacher and preacher, witness
the extraordinary activity of his mind.¹ He was in the
front rank of chemists of his day, and did more, perhaps,
than any other one man to carry that science over the
steps that led directly to its reconstruction by Lavoisier
and Dalton. He was the companion or correspondent
of Franklin in his studies of electricity; an honored guest
and associate among the men of science whom he visited
in Paris. With his friend Dr. Richard Price he had an
eager and hopeful interest in the earlier steps of the French
Revolution; and was, under the charge of republicanism,
mobbed and almost beggared in a frightful riot at Birming-
ham, in 1791. Coming to America in 1794, past the age
of sixty-one, he corresponded with Jefferson and others
on the latest ideas in political and social science. Through
all, with a wonderful sweetness of temper and an intel-
lectual courage equally rare," a heretic who was yet a
saint," as Huxley says of him, he devoted himself to the
one great purpose of his life, in developing, illustrating,
1 A list of 108 of his published writings, including pamphlets but not his
numberless magazine articles, fills eight pages of his memoir.
155
and defending his conception of religious truth. He de-
clared himself a Christian among those scientists in Paris
who told him he was the first man of sense they had seen
that believed in God, and proved his faith as serenely in
obloquy or exile as in the calm piety of his dying hours.
He was born near Leeds, of a Dissenting family rigidly
orthodox and scrupulously pious; learned the Westminster
Shorter Catechism by heart, and was taught to pray aloud
in his own words at six. Losing his mother at that age,
he was brought up by an aunt of austere Calvinistic faith,
who helped him generously, as well, in his early schooling.
At eleven he was experimenting on the breathing capacity
of spiders. In the year or two following he was studying
both Latin and Greek, and "rarely spent an hour for any
recreation," though in this time he read most of Bunyan's
works. His health, generally invulnerable, began (no
wonder) to fail him here, and he was on the point of
accepting a post in a commercial house at Lisbon. Re-
covering, we find him at seventeen dissuaded from study-
ing Rabbinic lore, having already learned the biblical
Hebrew, which he taught at eighteen. He had then, or
a little later, read the Hebrew Bible twice through, and
more. This he tells in self-defense against Horsley's
slurs upon his learning. Seeking church-membership about
this time, he was refused because he could not admit that
all men are personally guilty in Adam's sin, having been
influenced by one of his teachers, a "Baxterian." At
twenty, with a fellow-student, he formed the practice of
reading, in addition to their routine work, tẹn folio pages
of Greek daily, besides a Greek play or two each month.
Afterwards, when a teacher at a salary of thirty pounds,
his hours of instruction were eleven a day; and holidays,
except “red-letter days," seem to have been a thing un-
known.
JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.
-
3
$
HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM.
BY
RICHARD EDDY, D.D.
251
•
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
I. HISTORIES.
Ballou, Hosea, 2d, D.D., Ancient History of Universalism, from the
Time of the Apostles to the Fifth General Council, With an Appendix
tracing the Doctrine to the Reformation. Sawyer & Chambré, annotated
edition. Boston, Universalist Publishing House, 1872.
Beecher, Edward, D.D., History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine
of Retribution. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1878.
Eddy, Richard, D.D., Universalism in America.
2 vols. Boston, Uni-
versalist Publishing House, 1884-86.
Gieseler, J. C. I., Text-book of Ecclesiastical History. Translated by
Francis Cunningham. 3 vols. Philadelphia, Lea & Blanchard, 1836.
McClintock and Strong, Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Eccle-
siastical Literature. 10 vols. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1871-81.
Mosheim, John Lawrence von, Historical Commentaries on the State of
Christianity the First Three Hundred and Twenty-five Years from the
Christian Era. Murdock's translation; 2 vols. New York, S. Con-
verse, 1852.
Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern. Murdock's
translation; 3 vols. New York, Stanford & Swords, 1845.
Neander, Dr. Augustus, General History of the Christian Religion and
Church. Torrey's translation; eighth Am. ed.; 5 vols. Boston, Crocker
& Brewster, 1856.
Schaff, Philip, D.D., LL.D., History of the Christian Church. Third
revd. ed.; 7 vols. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1886-92.
Schaff-Herzog, A Religious Encyclopædia, or Dictionary of Biblical, His-
torical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology. 3 vols. New York, Funk
& Wagnalls, 1882-84.
Smith, Rev. Stephen R., Historical Sketches and Incidents illustrative
of the Establishment and Progress of Universalism in the State of New
York. First and second series. Albany and Buffalo, The Author,
1843, 1844.
Thomas, Rev. Abel C., A Century of Universalism in Philadelphia and
New York, etc. Philadelphia, The Author, 1872.
Ullman, Dr. C., Reformers before the Reformation, Principally in Germany
and the Netherlands. Menzies' translation; 2 vols. Edinburgh, T. &
T. Clark, 1855-
Whittemore, Thomas, D.D., The Modern History of Universalism, Ex-
tending from the Epoch of the Reformation to the Present. Vol. i. Bos-
ton, The Author, 1860. (European portion only.)
253
254
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
II. BIOGRAPHY.
Ballou, Rev. Hosea, by Thomas Whittemore, D.D. 4 vols. Boston,
J. M. Usher, 1854.
Cobb, Sylvanus, D.D., by S. Cobb, Jr. Boston, Universalist Publishing
House, 1867.
Murray, Rev. John, by his wife. Boston, Universalist Publishing House,
1869.
Stacy, Rev. Nathaniel, Autobiography. Columbus, Pa., A. Vedder,
1850.
Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, by Rev. Edwin M. Stone. Boston, H. B.
Brewster, 1836.
III.
Ante-Nicene Fathers. Am. ed.; 8 vols. Buffalo, Christian Literature Co.,
1885, 1886.
First series; 14
A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
vols. Buffalo and New York, Christian Literature Co., 1886-90.
The same. Second series; 7 vols. Published.
Ballou, Rev. Hosea, A Treatise on Atonement.
First ed. Randolph,
Vt., The Author, 1805; also fifth ed., Boston, Abel Tompkins, 1832.
Murray, Rev. John, Letters, and Sketches of Sermons.
3 vols.
Boston,
Joshua Belcher, 1812.
Relly, Rev. James, Union: A Treatise of the Consanguinity and Affinity
between Christ and His Church. Providence, John Carter, 1782.
Universalist Quarterly and General Review. Vols. i.-xlviii. (all published).
Boston, 1844-91.
Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, The Universal Restoration, Exhibited in a
Dialogue between a Minister and His Friend. Philadelphia, T. Dobson,
1792.
THEOLOGICAL.
}
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE REFORMATION.
UNIVERSALISM, using the word in its present theologi-
cal meaning, is the doctrine or belief that it is the purpose
of God, through the grace revealed in our Lord Jesus
Christ, to save every member of the human race from sin.
The word suggests nothing with regard to any human
founder, any place where it was first promulgated, any
particular form of church polity, any rite or ordinance, any
opinion of the equality or the subordination of the Son to
the Father. Universalism is not dependent on these. It
may be, and to some extent has been, and is still, embraced
by those in Christian sects whose denominational titles em-
phasize these respective peculiarities.
The Universalist denomination, as an organized body of
believers in Universalism, gratefully recognizes its founders,
has adopted a definite polity of government, observes rites
and ordinances, believes in the subordination of the Son to
the Father. The presence of Universalism may be traced
to the earliest period of Christian history. The existence
of the Universalist denomination reaches but little beyond
a century.
M
The plan of this history is, therefore, twofold: to show
where and how Universalism has been advocated, and to
255
256
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
describe the rise, progress, and present status of the Uni-
versalist Church.
Jag
It is now generally conceded by writers on the history
of Christianity and its doctrines, that the earliest known
writings after the days of the Apostles are apologies or
defenses of the facts in relation to the life and mission of
Jesus and exhortations to the Christian life, rather than
statements of eschatological opinions or beliefs. It is not
improbable that there may have been several written state-
ments of doctrines-as the opinions of some thereon are
quoted by later writers-which have perished, it having
been the policy of the persecutors of the early church to
destroy all Christian documents they could reach.
It may be conceded that there were then, as in later
times and now, three general opinions held in regard to
the destiny of the sinful: their annihilation, their endless
suffering, and their final salvation. But it is very certain
that for centuries the latter opinion was regarded as ortho-
dox as were either of the others. Even where it was held
by the several divisions of the Gnostics, A.D. 130, it was
never charged by the orthodox that their Universalism
was a heresy.
In the second century, the church, on the ground that
the end justifies the means," perpetrated what is in-
congruously called a "pious fraud.”
pious fraud." From an early pe-
riod there had existed, preserved with great secrecy in
the temple of Jupiter, writings known as the "Sibylline
Books," containing oracles claiming to have been deliv-
ered by the ancient Sybils, or pagan prophetesses. These
books shared the fate of the temple when it was destroyed
by fire, B.C. 83. Attempts for their restoration were made
at various times, in which some Christian or Christians took
part by forging what are now known as the "Sibylline
Oracles," and putting them forth for the purpose of con-
257
verting the heathen to Christianity on the pretended testi-
mony of their own acknowledged prophetic writers. The
"Oracles" have been attributed to Montanus, to Christians
of Alexandria, to the Gnostics, and even to Tertullian; and
have also been regarded as the production of different ages,
reaching from before Christ to A.D. 500. Much of this
speculation as to time is absurd and impossible, and much
is mere conjecture. It is very certain that they are of early
origin, and a portion undoubtedly belongs to the second
century, to which they have been generally accredited.
They were used as indubitable evidence in controversies.
with the heathen, by Justin Martyr, Theophilus of Antioch,
Athenagoras, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Augustine,
Eusebius, etc. Origen in his controversy with Celsus says.
that the enemies of the Christians sometimes derisively
called them Sibyllists.¹
THE "SIBYLLINE ORACLES."
What these fraudulent "Oracles" teach is of little
moment, only as it indicates what then entered into gen-
eral Christian belief and was pressed with great zeal on the
attention of the heathen as orthodox Christianity. In them.
we have an explicit declaration that the damned shall be
restored. After describing the burning of the universe,
the rising of the dead, the assembled world before the
judgment-seat, and the horrible torments to which the
damned are sentenced in the flames of hell, the "Oracle"
proceeds to expatiate on the blessedness and the privileges
of the saved; and concludes the account by saying that,
after the general judgment: "The omnipotent, incorrup-
tible God shall confer another favor on his worshipers,
when they shall ask him: he shall save mankind from the
pernicious fire and immortal agonies. This will he do.
For, having gathered them, safely secured from the un-
wearied flame, and appointed them to another place, he
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 570.
258
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
shall send them, for his people's sake, into another and an
eternal life, with the immortals on the Elysian plain, where
flow perpetually the long, dark waves of the deep sea of
Acheron."
If the early Christians desired the heathen to thus be-
lieve in the restoration of the wicked, it undoubtedly was
because they received it as a Christian doctrine. And that
the above-cited passage sets forth the fact that the " Ora-
cles" do teach Universalism, learned translators of and
commentators on the " Oracles," such as Musardus, Cas-
talio, Gallæus, and Davis, in his translation of Blondel's
"French Treatise," are agreed.¹
(C
Theophilus, bishop of the church at Antioch, although
he speaks of the wicked as enduring "everlasting fire,"
"everlasting torments," also teaches a final universal res-
toration; thus showing that, like other early Greeks, he
did not regard aionios as meaning endless. Speaking of
God's goodness in expelling man from paradise," he
says: "God showed great kindness to man in this, that he
did not suffer him to remain in sin forever; but, as it were,
by a kind of banishment, cast him out of paradise; in order
that, having by punishment expiated, within an appointed
time, the sin, and having been disciplined, he should after-
ward be restored. Wherefore also, when man had been
formed in this world, it is mystically written in Genesis,
as if he had been twice placed in paradise; so that the one
was fulfilled when he was placed there, and the second
will be fulfilled after the resurrection and judgment. For
just as a vessel, when on being fashioned it has some flaw,
is remolded or remade, that it may become new and en-
tire, so shall it happen to man by death. For somehow
or other he is broken up, that he may rise in the resur-
GAN
See a learned note by Thomas B. Thayer, D.D., in." Universalist Quar-
terly," July, 1868, pp. 369 ff.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
259
rection whole; I mean spotless, and righteous, and im-
mortal." 1
The first great scholar in the church, renowned for his
knowledge of history and philosophy, was Clement of
Alexandria, successor to Pantanus as head of the theo-
logical school at Alexandria. It was a fundamental doc-
trine with Clement that man was created to be educated
and not for a limited trial of his powers, and that his op-
portunity for education is as lasting as his being. In view
of this it would be impossible to conceive of punishment
as an end, much less of its being endless, or resulting in
the annihilation of the punished. This is his teaching in
his "Exhortation to the Heathen":
CC
Monda
"Great is the grace of his promise, if to-day we hear
his voice.' And that to-day is lengthened out day by
day, while it is called to-day. And to the end, the to-day
and the instruction continue; and then the true to-day,
the never-ending day of God, extends over eternity. Let
us then ever obey the voice of the divine Word.
to-day signifies eternity."
For the
So in the "Pedagogue," Clement thus answers the ob-
jection, "How then, if the Lord loves man and is good, is
he angry and punishes?":
We must treat of this point with all possible brevity;
for this mode of treatment is advantageous to the right
training of the children, occupying the place of a necessary
help. For many of the passions are cured by punishment,
and by the inculcation of the sterner precepts, as also by in-
struction in certain principles. Reproof is, as it were, the
surgery of the passions of the soul. . . . Reproach is like
the application of medicines dissolving the callosities of
the soul and purging the impurities of the lewdness of the
life. . . . Admonition is, as it were, the regimen of the
2 Ibid., p. 196.
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. ii., p. 104.
ܕ
260
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
1
P
diseased soul, prescribing what it must take, and forbid-
ding what it must not. And all these tend to salvation.
and eternal health. . . . He who is our great General,
the Word, the Commander-in-Chief of the universe, by
admonishing those who throw off the restraints of his law,
that he may effect their release from the slavery, error, and
captivity of the adversary, brings them peacefully to the
sacred concord of citizenship. . . . Those who are not in-
duced by praise are spurred on by censure; and those
whom censure calls not forth to salvation, being as dead,
are by denunciation roused to the truth. . . . The vine
that is not pruned grows to wood. So also man. The
Word the knife-clears away the wanton shoots; com-
pelling the impulses of the soul to fructify, not to indulge
in lust. Now, reproof addressed to sinners has their sal-
vation for its aim, the word being harmoniously adjusted
to each one's conduct; now with tightened, now with re-
laxed cords. . . . Wherefore I will grant that he punishes
the disobedient (for punishment is for the good and ad-
vantage of him who is punished, for it is the correction of
a refractory subject); but I will not grant that he wishes
to take vengeance. Revenge is retribution for evil, im-
posed for the advantage of him who takes the revenge.
He will not desire us to take revenge who teaches us to
pray for those that despitefully use us.' . . . With all his
power, therefore, the Instructor of humanity, the divine
Word, using all the resources of wisdom, devotes himself
to the saving of the children, admonishing, upbraiding,
blaming, chiding, reproving, threatening, healing, promis-
ing, favoring; and as it were, by many reins, curbing the
irrational impulses of humanity. To speak briefly, there-
fore, the Lord acts toward us as we do toward our children.
'Hast thou children? correct them,' is the exhortation of
the book of Wisdom, and bend them from their youth.
6
}
Wed
Mandy
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.
261
Hast thou daughters? attend to their body, and let not thy
face brighten toward them,'-although we love our chil-
dren exceedingly, both sons and daughters, above all else
whatever. For those who speak with a man merely to
please him have little love for him, seeing they do not
pain him; while those that speak for his good, though they
inflict pain for the time, do him good forever after. It is
not immediate pleasure, but future enjoyment, that the
Lord has in view.' "1
It was a common belief among Christians of all sects or
divisions in the second and third centuries, that Christ went
down into hades, or the underworld, after his death on the
cross, and remained there until his resurrection; but there.
was not general agreement as to what he did while there.
Clement was of the opinion that he went there "to preach
the gospel to those that perished in the flood, or rather
had been chained, and to those kept in ward and guard.'"
And his argument based on his thus being employed
reaches beyond the particular class of sinners then in the
underworld, and includes all who there or elsewhere need
salvation. Thus in the "Stromata":
(C
If,
J
If, then, the Lord descended to hades for no other end
but to preach the gospel, as he did descend, it was either
to preach the gospel to all or to the Hebrews only.
accordingly, to all, then all who believe shall be saved, al-
though they may be of the Gentiles, on making their pro-
fession there; since God's punishments are saving and dis-
ciplinary, leading to conversion, and choosing rather the
repentance than the death of the sinner; and especially
since souls, although darkened by passions, when released
from their bodies are able to perceive more clearly, because
of their being no longer obstructed by the paltry flesh."2
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. ii., pp. 225 ff.
2 Ibid., p. 490 (.
262
NIVERSA.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
In another chapter, arguing that Christ is the Saviour
of all, he says:
"All men are his; some through knowledge, and others
not yet so; and some as friends, some as faithful servants,
some as servants merely. This is the Teacher who trains
the Gnostic by mysteries, and the believer by good hopes,
and the hard of heart by corrective discipline through
sensible operation. . . . How is he Saviour and Lord, if
not the Saviour and Lord of all? But he is the Saviour
of those who have believed, because of their wishing to
know; and the Lord of those who have not believed, till,
being enabled to confess him, they obtain the peculiar and
appropriate boon which comes by him. . . . For all things
are arranged with a view to the salvation of the universe
by the Lord of the universe, both generally and particu-
larly. . . . Now everything that is virtuous changes for
the better; having as the proper cause of change the free
choice of knowledge, which the soul has in its own power.
But necessary corrections, through the goodness of the
great overseeing Judge, both by the attendant angels and
by various acts of anticipative judgment, obey the perfect
judgment, compel egregious sinners to repent.
>>1
In the "Fragments," Clement makes this strong state-
ment in commenting on 1 John ii. 2: "And not only for
our sins'—that is, for those of the faithful-is the Lord
the propitiator, does he say, 'but also for the whole world.'
He, indeed, saves all; but some [he saves], converting
them by punishments; others, however, who follow vol-
untarily [he saves] with dignity of honor; so 'that every
knee should bow to him, of things in heaven, and things
on earth, and things under the earth'; that is, angels, men,
and souls that before his advent have departed from this
temporal life.'
1)
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. ii., pp. 524. ff.
2 Ibid., p. 575.
g
-
A
263
Clement was succeeded in the presidency of the theo-
logical school by his pupil, the renowned Origen. Mos-
heim says of him:
ORIGEN.
He had traveled through the whole encyclopædia of
human knowledge in that age, and he was justly accounted
a universal scholar, both by the Christians and by other
people. . . . Origen possessed every excellence that can
adorn the Christian character; uncommon piety, from
his very childhood; unequaled perseverance in labors and
toils for the advancement of the Christian cause; untiring
zeal for the church, and for the extension of Christianity;
an elevation of soul which placed him above all ordinary
desires or fears; the purest trust in the Lord Jesus, for
whose sake, when he was old and oppressed with ills of
every kind, he patiently and perseveringly endured the
severest sufferings. . . . Certainly if any man deserves
to stand first in the catalogue of saints and martyrs, and
to be annually held up as an example to Christians, this
is the man for, except the apostles of Jesus Christ and
their companions, I know of no one, among those enrolled
and honored as saints, who excelled him in holiness and
virtue."1
The philosophy of Origen had as its fundamental the
doctrine of the preëxistence of souls, which, at their crea-
tion, had all been on a plane of equality; that by the ex-
ercise of their free-will-a characteristic of their being
which will endure eternally-some had chosen to put
themselves out of harmony with God and were now in
material investments for their education and discipline.
The higher order of souls-i.e., those who have made the
best choice-are lodged in those splendid material bodies,
the sun, moon, and stars; such as had chosen unwisely
and wickedly are doomed to inhabit human bodies; while
1 Mosheim's "Historical Commentaries," vol. ii., p. 149 f.
264
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
those still more perverse become demons and are attached
to bodies more tenuous than ours, and such as vehemently
excite them to evil. Souls which resist temptation and
choose righteousness are gradually purified; souls which
neglect this duty will be subjected to some harsher mode
of purgation until they repent and begin to exert their
liberty for good. And when all souls shall have returned
to their primitive state and to God, this material world
will be dissolved.
Origen's philosophy seemed to him so well founded and
important that it colored all his theology as derived from
the Scriptures, and necessitated his theory of interpreta-
tion. The literal meaning of the Bible he did not deny
in regard to many of its plainest statements, for he said:
"The passages that are true in their historical [literal]
meaning are much more numerous than those which are
interspersed with a purely spiritual significance." Some
passages are allegorical, and he supposed that the higher
sense of the Scriptures as a whole was the mystical or
spiritual sense.
By all his contemporaries, and by historians of Christian
doctrines generally, Origen is regarded as teaching the
doctrine of Universalism. By a few, chiefly in modern
times, it is denied that he so taught; the contention being
that he intimates the possibility of "endless changes" from
good to bad, or from bad to good. The foundation for
this opinion is in a supposed passage in the "De Principiis,"
and certain assertions of Jerome and Augustine.
The passage in the "De Principiis " is the following:
"We are of opinion that, seeing the soul, as we have fre-
quently said, is immortal and eternal, it is possible that, in
the many and endless periods of duration in the immeasur-
able and different worlds, it may descend from the highest
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 368.
265
good to the lowest evil, or be restored from the lowest evil
to the highest good."1
Origen said nothing of the kind. It is a sheer invention
of Rufinus, who pretended to translate Origen from the
Greek into the Latin, but, to meet his own ends, in setting
forth Origen's opinions omitted much, added more, and
whatever was not to his liking, changed. Unfortunately,
only a few fragments of the Greek remain, and so we are
not able to detect all the unwarranted changes and ad-
ditions; but in the portion cited above, the Greek has been
preserved and shows that Rufinus invented what he pre-
tended to change into Latin.2
ORIGEN.
Jerome had been a great admirer of Origen, had spoken
of him in terms of highest praise, had followed him in
forming his own opinions and in writing his commentaries;
going so far in the latter as to subject himself to the charge
of appropriating more than accorded with strict honor
and fair dealing. Drawn into a league with Epiphanius in
seeking to bring reproach on Origen, now a hundred and
fifty years dead, he was both weak and dishonest; and,
like Rufinus, invented whatever would suit his purpose in
damaging the reputation of one to whom he was so much
in debt for his own learning and ability. Rufinus, indeed,
appeals to the example of Jerome for justification of his
own misrepresentation of Origen's opinions.3 Neither of
them stood on any such trifle as honesty when something
else would better serve their immediate purpose. This is
abundantly shown in their letters to each other in the vol-
ume just referred to.
Augustine's opinion of Origen's teachings, although
honestly given, was founded on Jerome's statements, he
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 327.
2 See Rufinus' translation, and a literal rendering of Origen's Greek, in
parallel columns, in "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 327.
3 "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. iii., p. 446.
266
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
:
having requested the latter to tell him wherein Origen had
departed from the truth. He had not read for himself the
Greek of Origen. He is not therefore, in this matter, an
independent witness, but the echo of an unscrupulous one.
If it is, as we have said, believed by contemporaries and
generally agreed by historians of Christian doctrines that
Origen taught universal salvation, then the presumption is
that wherein his writings, as they have come to us through
the manipulation of unscrupulous hands, disagree with or
flatly contradict this teaching, they are not a true transla-
tion of what Origen wrote. Jerome, in charging Rufinus
with changing Origen's words instead of translating them,
makes this just remark: "Origen is no fool, as I well know;
he cannot contradict himself."1 Here is what Origen says
in the "De Principiis," as translated into Latin by Rufinus:
"The end of the world, then, and the final consummation,
will take place when every one shall be subjected to pun-
ishment for his sins; a time which God alone knows, when
he will bestow on each one what he deserves. We think,
indeed, that the goodness of God, through his Christ, may
recall all his creatures to one end,² even his enemies being
conquered and subdued. For thus says holy Scripture,
'The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool.' And if the
meaning of the prophet's language here be less clear, we
may ascertain it from the Apostle Paul, who speaks more
openly, thus: 'For Christ must reign until he has put all
enemies under his feet.' But if even that unreserved dec-
laration of the Apostle do not sufficiently inform us what
is meant by enemies being placed under his feet,' listen
to what he says in the following words, 'For all things
1
"will cer-
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. iii., p. 508.
2 The late Rev. Dr. Hosea Ballou, 2d, rendered this passage,
tainly restore all creatures into one final state."
267
must be put under him.' What, then, is this 'putting un-
der' by which all things must be made subject to Christ?
I am of opinion that it is this very subjection by which we
also wish to be subject to him, by which the apostles also
were subject, and all the saints who have been followers
of Christ. For the name 'subjection,' by which we are
subject to Christ, indicates that the salvation which pro-
ceeds from him belongs to his subjects, agreeably to the
declaration of David, 'Shall not my soul be subject unto
God? From him cometh my salvation.
>>1
Origen then goes on to connect this doctrine with that
of the preëxistence of souls, contemplating the end first
described in its relation to the beginning, from which spring
many differences and varieties, which again, through the
goodness of God and by subjection to Christ and through
the unity of the Holy Spirit, are recalled to one end, which
is like unto the beginning: all those, viz., who, bending the
knee at the name of Jesus, make known by so doing their
subjection to him: and these are they who are in heaven,
on earth and under the earth: by which three classes the
whole universe of things is pointed out. . . . From all
which, I am of opinion, so far as I can see, that this order
of the human race has been appointed in order that in the
future world, or in ages to come, when there shall be the
new heavens and new earth, spoken of by Isaiah, it may
be restored to that unity promised by the Lord Jesus in
his prayer to God the Father on behalf of his disciples: 'I
do not pray for these alone, but for all who shall believe
on me through their word: that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us;' and again, when he says: 'That they may
be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me,
that they may be made perfect in one.
"12
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 260.
66
ORIGEN.
2 Ibid., p. 260 f.
Co
268
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
So, farther on, as an addendum to what he here says,
he gives us the following:
((
If we now assert that God is everywhere and in all
things, on the ground that nothing can be empty of God,
we nevertheless do not say that he is now 'all things' in
those in whom he is. And hence we must look more
carefully as to what that is which denotes the perfection
of blessedness and the end of things, which is not only said
to be God in all things, but also all in all.' Let us then
inquire what all those things are which God is to become
in all.
"I am of opinion that the expression by which God is
said to be all in all,' means that he is 'all' in each indi-
vidual person.
Now he will be 'all' in each individual
in this way when all which any rational understanding,
cleansed from the dregs of every sort of vice, and with
every cloud of wickedness completely swept away, can
either feel, or understand, or think, will be wholly God;
and when it will no longer behold or retain anything else
than God, but when God will be the measure and standard
of all its movements; and thus God will be all, for there
will no longer be any distinction of good and evil, seeing
evil nowhere exists; for God is all things, and to him no
evil is near; nor will there be any longer a desire to eat
from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on the
part of him who is always in the possession of good, and
to whom God is all. So that, when the end has been re-
stored to the beginning, and the termination of things com-
pared with their commencement, that condition of things
will be reëstablished in which rational nature was placed,
when it had no need to eat of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil; so that when all feeling of wickedness
has been removed, and the individual has been purified
and cleansed, he who alone is the one good God becomes
J
ORIGEN.
269
to him 'all,' and that not in the case of a few individuals,
or of a considerable number, but he himself is 'all in all.'
And when death shall no longer anywhere exist, nor the
sting of death, nor any evil at all, then verily God will be
'all in all.'"'1
Rufinus makes Origen say of what is set forth in the
foregoing quotation from pp. 260, 261, that he treats the
subject "in the manner rather of an investigation and dis-
cussion, than in that of fixed and certain decision. For
we have pointed out in the preceding pages those questions
which must be set forth in clear dogmatic propositions,
as I think has been done to the best of my ability when
speaking of the Trinity. But on the present occasion our
exercise is to be conducted, as we best may, in the style
of a disputation rather than of strict definition.”2
3
If we bear in mind that a leading object in Rufinus'
translation was to make Origen appear to be orthodox on
the doctrine of the Trinity, and that in this, according to
Jerome, he did not translate, but invent, we shall not be
unjust in the suspicion that he has not translated, but has
invented, the above. If we also bear in mind that Origen's
theory of preexistence was never tentatively held by him,
but was all-controlling in its influence on his thoughts and
opinions, we shall be justified in saying that what he has
said of "the end being like the beginning" was as firm a
conviction as any that he declared on any subject. Or, if
we give the benefit of the doubt to Rufinus, we may well
heed the admonition of Dr. Crombie, that "the De Prin-
cipiis,' it must not be forgotten, was not the product of
the author's mature mind.”4 If he has abandoned or con-
C
8 "
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 345. * Ibid., p. 260.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," first series, vol. ii., pp. 501-518.
Origen was a believer in the subordination of the Son to the Father. See
"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. i., p. 14.
Footnote to his translation of the work "The Ante-Nicene Fathers,"
vol. iv., p. 359.
270
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
tradicted this Universalism in any later production, it is of
little consequence whether he held it here as a conjecture,
or as a positive conviction.
But he neither contradicted nor abandoned it. It was
his settled conviction and he expressed it in unambiguous
terms. In his "Homilies" and his "Commentaries" he
avows his belief in the end of sin and the salvation of all
souls. In his "Homily on Leviticus," written from fifteen
to twenty years after the "De Principiis," in an extended
passage, in which he represents Christ as waiting for us
to be converted, he says: "He is expecting joy. When
does he expect it? When, says he, I shall have finished
my work. When will he finish his work? When he shall
have perfected me, who am the last and the worst of sinners,
then he will finish his work. For his work is still unfinished
while I remain imperfect. While I am not subjected to
the Father he is not subject to the Father. Not that he
himself is wanting in subjection to God, but for my sake,
in whom his work is not yet finished, he is said to be not
subjected. . . . But when he shall have finished his work
and brought his whole creation to the height of perfection,
then is he said to be subject to the Father, in those whom
he has subjected to the Father, and in whom' the work his
Father gave him to do is finished, that God may be all in
all." 1
In the fifth book of his "Commentaries on Romans,"
written about A.D. 246, he says:
"We assert that the power of the cross of Christ and of
his death, suffered once in the end of the world, is sufficient
for the cure and health, not only of the present and future,
but even of past ages, and not only for our human race,
but even for the celestial orders and powers; for, accord-
ing to the opinion of the Apostle Paul, Christ by the blood
1 Seventh Homily.
1
ORIGEN.
27I
of his cross has reconciled not only the things which are in
the earth, but also the things which are in heaven." To
prove that though free the soul will not again run into sin,
he quotes the words of the Apostle, "Love never faileth,"
and adds: "If the soul shall rise to that degree of per-
fection that it will love God with all its heart, and all its
powers, and all its mind, and its neighbor as itself, what
place will there be for sin?" He also quotes the language
of St. John, that, "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in
God," and adds: "Therefore that love which alone is
greater than all will preserve every creature from falling.
Then shall God be all in all.”1
In his treatise against Celsus, written A.D. 248 or 249,
are two striking passages. Celsus, a heathen philosopher,
had attacked Christianity, and among other charges which
he brought against Christians was this, that they repre-
sented God as a torturer, "descending on the wicked like
a tormentor, armed with fire." To which Origen replies:
"As it is in mockery that Celsus says we speak of 'God
coming down like a torturer bearing fire,' and thus com-
pels us unseasonably to investigate words of deeper mean-
ing, we shall make a few remarks, sufficient to enable our
hearers to form an idea of the defense which disposes of
the ridicule of Celsus against us, and then we shall turn to
what follows. The divine Word says that our God is 'a
consuming fire,' and that he draws rivers of fire before
him'; nay, that he even entereth in as 'a refiner's fire, and
as a fuller's herb,' to purify his own people. But when he
is said to be a 'consuming fire,' we inquire what are the
things which are appropriate to be consumed by God. And
we assert that they are wickedness, and the works which
·
Hand
1 Lommatzsch's, edition, vol. vi., pp. 407-413. See also his Commen-
tary on John i. 36; xii. 31, 32; Eph. i. 10; Coll. i. 20; Philip. ii. 9, 10;
Hom. viii. and xix. on Jeremiah,
+
272
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
6
result from it, and which, being figuratively called 'wood,
hay, and stubble,' God consumes as a fire. The wicked
man, accordingly, is said to build up on the previously laid
foundation of reason, 'wood and hay and stubble.' If,
then, any one can show that these words were differently
understood by the writer and can prove that the wicked
man literally builds up wood or hay or stubble,' it is evi-
dent that the fire must be understood to be material and
an object of sense. But if, on the contrary, the works of
the wicked man are spoken of figuratively under the names
of wood or hay or stubble,' why does it not at once occur
in what sense the word 'fire' is to be taken, so that 'wood'
of such a kind should be consumed? For the Scripture
says: 'The fire will try each man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon,
he shall receive a reward. If any man's work be burned,
he shall suffer loss.' But what work can be spoken of in
these words as being burned,' save all that results from
wickedness? Therefore our God is a consuming fire' in
the sense in which we have taken the word; and thus he
enters in as a 'refiner's fire,' to refine the rational nature,
which has been filled with the lead of wickedness, and to
free it from the other impure materials which adulterate
the natural gold or silver, so to speak, of the soul. And,
in like manner, 'rivers of fire' are said to be before God,
who will thoroughly cleanse away the evil which is inter-
mingled throughout the whole soul."
1
Again, Celsus had ridiculed the Christian idea that "all
the inhabitants of Asia, Europe, and Libya, Greeks and
Barbarians, all to the uttermost ends of the earth were
to come under one law," and had added: "Any one
who thinks this possible, knows nothing." To which Ori-
gen replies: "It would require careful consideration and
The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 502.
"
ORIGEN.
273
lengthened argument to prove that it is not only possible,
but that it will surely come to pass, that all who are en-
dowed with reason shall come under one law. However,
if we must refer to this subject, it will be with great brevity.
The Stoics, indeed, hold that, when the strongest of the
elements prevails, all things shall be turned into fire. But
our belief is, that the Word shall prevail over the entire
rational creation, and change every soul into his own per-
fection; in which state every one, by the mere exercise of
his power, will choose what he desires and obtain what he
chooses. For although, in the diseases and wounds of the
body, there are some which no medical skill can cure, yet
we hold that in the mind there is no evil so strong that it
may not be overcome by the supreme Word and God. For
stronger than all the evils in the soul is the Word and the
healing power that dwells in him; and this healing he
applies, according to the will of God, to every mán. The
consummation of all things is the destruction of evil, al-
though as to the question whether it shall be so destroyed
that it can never anywhere arise again, it is beyond our
present purpose to say. Many things are said obscurely
in the prophecies on the total destruction of evil, and the
restoration to righteousness of every soul; but it will be
enough for our present purpose to quote the following
passage from Zephaniah: 'Prepare and rise early; all the
gleanings of their vineyards are destroyed. Therefore
wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, on the day that I rise
up for a testimony; for my determination is to gather the
nations, that I may assemble the kings, to pour upon them
mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth
shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may
all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one
consent. From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my sup-
274
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
pliants, even the daughter of my dispersed, shall bring my
offering. In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all
thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for
then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that
rejoice in thy pride; and thou shalt no more be haughty
because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in the
midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall
trust in the name of the LORD. The remnant of Israel
shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceit-
ful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed
and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.' I leave
it to those who are able, after a careful study of the whole
subject, to unfold the meaning of this prophecy, and
especially to inquire into the significance of the words,
'When the whole earth is destroyed, there will be turned
upon the peoples a language according to their race'
[Bouhéreau translates this, "A language to last as long as
the world"], as things were before the confusion of tongues.
Let them also carefully consider the promise that all shall
call upon the name of the Lord and serve him with one
consent; also that all contemptuous reproach shall be taken
away, and there shall be no longer any injustice, or vain
speech, or a deceitful tongue. And thus much it seemed
needful for me to say briefly, and without entering into
elaborate details, in answer to the remark of Celsus, that
he considered any agreement between the inhabitants of
Asia, Europe, and Libya, as well Greeks as Barbarians,
was impossible. And perhaps such a result would indeed.
be impossible to those who are still in the body, but not
to those who are released from it." 1
In addition to the Scripture quoted or referred to in any
of the foregoing extracts from his writings, Origen uses
in illustration and defense of his Universalism the fol-
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. iv., p. 667.
275
lowing passages: Psalm xxi. 19; lxxviii., 30–35; cx. 1, 2;
Isaiah iv. 4; xii. 1, 2; xxiv. 21-23; xlvii. 14; Ezekiel xvi.
53-55; Hosea xiv. 3, 4; Micah vii. 8, 9; Malachi iii. 2, 3;
Matt. v. 26; xviii. 12, 13; John x. 16; Romans viii. 20-
23; xi. 25, 26, 32; 1 Corinthians xv. 54; Ephesians i. 9,
10; ii. 7; iv. 13; 1 Timothy iv. 10. These are the prin-
cipal texts commented on, but there are many others,
especially in the Epistle to the Romans. Commenting on
chapter vi., he states the arguments used for the idea of
a fall hereafter in heaven. In his reply he says: "Free-
will indeed remains, but the power of the cross suffices for
all orders and all ages, past and to come. And that free-
will will not lead to sin is plain, because love never faileth,
and when God is loved with all the heart, and soul, and
mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, where
is the place for sin?" So on chapter viii., 35-39, "Who
shall separate us," etc., he says: "If all these cannot sep-
arate us from the love of God, much more free-will cannot
separate us. For though that power remains, yet the
power of love is so great that it will subordinate all things
to itself, especially since God has first given us such causes
of love." Explaining Romans xi. 26, 27, where Paul calls
the salvation of all Israel and the Gentile world a mystery,
he takes particular notice of that word, then gives a general
statement of the universal reach of the salvation spoken of,
and adds: "Nevertheless, we ought always to remember
that the Apostle would have the text now under consid-
eration regarded as a mystery; so that the faithful and
thoroughly instructed should conceal its meaning among
themselves, as a mystery of God, nor obtrude it every-
where upon the imperfect and those of less capacity." As
already noted, he often deviated from his own advice; and,
as we shall presently see, his pupils and others who taught
Universalism on a different basis from that on which he
ORIGEN.
276
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
placed it, were bold in their advocacy. But it is well
to bear in mind that it was a common rule of Christian
teachers in that age to use much caution in avowing other
tenets, particularly those concerning Antichrist and the
near approach of the end of the world. The form of the
creed and the rites of the Lord's Supper were concealed, as
mysteries, from the uninitiated. Indeed, within the church.
itself there was a series of doctrines appropriated to the
maturer believers and withheld from the less-disciplined
members.¹ Origen's application of the rule to Universal-
ism was therefore not an exceptional use of it, and has no
significance that did not also attach to its use elsewhere.
Gregory (A.D. 205-265) was an eminent pupil of Ori-
gen, and his writings that have come down to us are mea-
ger and do not bear on this subject; but Rufinus, speak-
ing of Universalism, says that "Gregory Thaumaturgus
erred with Origen."
Methodius (A.D. 260-312) wrote against Origen's doc-
trines of preexistence and of the resurrection, but has
nothing to say against his Universalism. In his "Dis-
course on the Resurrection," in which he argues for the
resurrection of the body, he takes ground which seems to
necessitate his belief in Universalism. He says that: "In
order that man might not be an undying or ever-living
evil, as would have been the case if sin were dominant
within him, as it had sprung up in an immortal body, and
was provided with immortal sustenance, God for this cause
pronounced him mortal and clothed him with mortality.
For this is what was meant by the coats of skins, in order
that, by the dissolution of the body, sin might be altogether
destroyed by the roots, that there might not be left even
the smallest particle of root from which new shoots of sin
might again burst forth. . . . No one can boast of being
1 Mosheim's "Historical Commentaries," vol. i., pp. 372-380.
J
:
"
www
METHODIUS.
277
so free from sin as not even to have an evil thought.
. . . But hereafter the very thought of evil will disap-
pear. . . . God, seeing man, his fairest work, corrupted by
envious treachery, he could not endure, with his love for
man, to leave him in such a condition, lest he should be
forever faulty, and bear the blame for eternity; but dis-
solved him again into his original materials, in order that,
by remodeling, all the blemishes in him might waste away
and disappear. For the melting down of the statue in the
former case corresponds to the death and dissolution of
the body in the latter, and the remolding of the material
in the former to the resurrection after death in the latter.
. . For I call your attention to this, that after man's
transgression the Great Hand was not content to leave
as a trophy of victory its own work, debased by the Evil
One, who wickedly injured it from motives of envy; but
moistened and reduced it to clay, as a potter breaks up a
vessel, that by the remodeling of it all the blemishes and
bruises in it may disappear, and it may be made afresh
faultless and pleasing." Elsewhere, in another fragment
of the "Book on the Resurrection": "God had images of
himself made as of gold-that is, of a purer spiritual sub-
stance, as the angels; and others of clay or brass, as our-
selves. He united the soul which was made in the image
of God to that which was earthy. As, then, we must here
honor all the images of a king, on account of the form that
is in them, so also it is incredible that we who are the
images of God should be altogether destroyed as being
without honor."1
Pamphilus, educated in the school at Alexandria, and
a learned presbyter of Cæsarea, in Palestine, was a special
teacher of biblical exposition. Thrown into prison during
the persecutions by Diocletian, A.D. 307, he wrote between
1 "The Ante-Nicene Fathers," vol. vi., pp. 364, 365, 378.
278
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
that time and his martyrdom, A.D. 309, an "Apology for
Origen." In this he was assisted by Eusebius, a fellow-
presbyter, and the church historian. With the exception.
of the first book, this Apology, or Defense, has perished.
From what remains, however, we learn what were the
charges then brought against Origen by his enemies. The
seventh in the list of nine is thus stated: "They calum-
niously attack him on the resurrection of the dead, and the
punishment of the impious; accusing him of denying that
torments are to be inflicted on sinners." In reply Pam-
philus and Eusebius select, to indorse as true, among other
testimonies afforded by Origen's works, two distinct para-
graphs, in which he had, as usual, spoken of torments to
be hereafter inflicted by fire; but in which he, at the same
time, represented them as altogether remedial. We are
to understand," said he, "that God, our physician, in order
to remove those disorders which our souls contract from
various sins and abominations, uses that painful mode of
cure, and brings those torments of fire upon such as have
lost the health of the soul, just as an earthly physician, in
extreme cases, subjects his patients to cautery. . . . And
Isaiah teaches that the punishment said to be inflicted by
fire is very needful; saying of Israel, The Lord shall wash
away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and purge
the blood from their midst by the spirit of judgment, and
the spirit of burning.
CK
Concerning the Universalism of Eusebius, Jerome charges
that in his Commentaries on Isaiah he "yields himself up
to the tenets of Origen." A recent writer has the follow-
ing on the views of Eusebius:
((
)))
•
Commenting on Psalms ii., he says: 'The Son's break-
ing in pieces' his enemies is for the sake of remolding them,
as a potter his own work; as Jeremiah xviii. 6 says, i.e.,
to restore them once more to their former state. "Even
1).
"1
MARCELLUS.
.279
. . shall
the impious, when the day of the Lord arrives,
cast forth and fling away every false opinion of their mind
with regard to idols." In Isaiah li. 22: "Christ will there-
fore subject to himself everything (the universe), and this
saving subjection it is right to regard as similar to that
according to which the Son himself shall be subjected unto
him who subjected to himself all things.
But after
the close of everything he will not dwell in a few, but in
all those who are then worthy of the kingdom of heaven.
So then shall come to pass (God's being) all in all, when
he inhabits as his people all (absolutely, tous pantas). 'De
Eccles. Theol.,' vol. iii., p. 16.”1
Marcellus, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, about A.D. 330,
opposed Origen's views of the Trinity, but was nevertheless
a Universalist, on different grounds from those of Origen.
Neander says that he held that: "The entire human ap-
pearance [manifestation (?)] of Christ had for its object
to manifest God to the sensible nature of man, to elevate
man to God and to a participation in the divine life, and
to procure for him the victory over sin. Until this object
should be attained, the separate kingdom of Christ, grow-
ing out of this particular activity of the Logos, was to
endure. But as soon as the object was attained, God
would withdraw back into himself this efficiency of the
Logos, which had emanated from him; and the separate
kingdom of Christ, therewith connected, would again re-
solve itself into the one universal, eternal kingdom of God.
the Father-all which, as he supposed, could be shown
from 1 Corinthians xv. 28."2
•
*
•
P
Didymus the blind, A.D. 309–394, one of the later presi-
dents of the school in Alexandria, who is declared by
1 "Universalism Asserted," Allin, p. 112.
2" General History of the Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii.,
P. 425 f.
•
A
280
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
Rufinus to have been "the most open champion of Ori-
gen" and adherent to and defender of all his views except
those on the Trinity,' says in his Commentary on 1 Peter
iii.—about all that remains to us of his writings: "Man-
kind, being reclaimed from their sins, are to be subjected
to Christ in the fullness of the dispensation instituted for
the salvation of all."
Titus, Bishop of Bostra, in Arabia, named by Jerome as
one of the most important church writers of his time,"
in his books "Against the Manicheans "-all that has sur-
vived from his pen-written, it is thought, about A.D. 364,
says that the "abyss of hell is, indeed, the place of tor-
ment; but it is not eternal, nor did it exist in the original
constitution of nature. It was made afterward, as a rem-
edy for sinners, that it might cure them.
And the pun-
ishments are holy, as they are remedial and salutary in
their effect on transgressors; for they are inflicted not to
preserve them in their wickedness but to make them cease
from their wickedness. The anguish of their suffering com-
pels them to break off their vices."2
Passing by Victorinus, Jerome, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary,
Gregory Nazianzen, and others who seem at times to
have taught Universalism, and again, to have taught its
opposite-as also others of lesser fame whose Universalism
is unquestioned, we come to Gregory Nyssen, the brother
of Basil the Great. The doctrine of universal restoration,
says Neander, "was expounded and maintained with the
greatest logical ability and acuteness, in works written
expressly for that purpose by Gregory of Nyssa. God,
he maintained, had created rational beings in order that
they might be self-conscious and free vessels and recipi-
(C
S
1 "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. iii., pp. 486, 510.
2 "Ancient History of Universalism," by Hosca Ballou, D.D.,„.2d, p. 152.
See also Migne, vol. xviii., p. 1118.
GREGORY NYSSEN.
281
ents for the communications of the original fountain of all
good. . . . The expressions' reward' and ' punishment' are
but inadequate terms to denote the present existence or
the disturbance of this harmony of relations; just as when
the healthy eye, in the exercise of the power residing
within it, perceives objects in the sunlight, or when it is
prevented from so doing by disease. All punishments are
means of purification, ordained by divine love with a view
to purge rational beings from moral evil, and to restore
them back again to that communion with God which cor-
responds to their nature. God would not have permitted.
the existence of evil unless he had foreseen that by the
redemption all rational beings would, in the end, according
to their destination, attain to the same blessed fellowship
with himself." And in a footnote he adds that: "As this
doctrine stands so closely connected with Gregory's whole
system of faith, it belongs among the worst examples of
an arbitrary caprice, regardless of history, to endeavor to
show that all the passages in Gregory's writings referring
to this doctrine were interpolated by heretics."1
Neander mentions as among the works which Gregory
wrote for the express purpose of teaching Universalism,
"his exposition of 1 Corinthians xv. 28, in his 'Catechetical
Oration,' c. 8 and 35, in his tract on the soul and on the
resurrection, and his tract on the early death of children."
We content ourselves with an extract, "On the Soul and
the Resurrection." As to questions relating to the how
and when of death, and the character of mortal life, he
says:
CC
'But whenever the time comes that God shall have
brought our nature back to the primal state of man, it
(C
1 " History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii., p. 677. To the
same effect, see Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. v.,
pp. 14 ff.
282
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
will be useless to talk of such things then, and to imagine
that objections based upon such things can prove God's
power to be impeded in arriving at his end. His end is
one, and one only; it is this: When the complete whole
of our race shall have been perfected, from the first man
to the last-some having at once in this life been cleansed
from evil, others having afterward, in the necessary periods,
been healed by the Fire, others having in their life here
been unconscious equally of good and of evil-to offer to
every one of us participation in the blessings which are in
him, which, the Scripture tells us, 'eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard,' nor thought ever reached. But this is nothing
else, as I at least understand it, but to be in God himself;
for the Good which is above hearing and eye and heart
must be that Good which transcends the universe. But
the difference between the virtuous and vicious life led at
the present time will be illustrated in this way, viz., in the
quicker or more tardy participation of each in that prom-
ised blessedness. According to the amount of the ingrained
wickedness of each will be computed the duration of his
This cure consists in the cleansing of his soul, and
that cannot be achieved without an excruciating condition,
as has been expounded in our previous discussion." I
cure.
In the above-named work, as elsewhere, Gregory con-
fesses great indebtedness to his sister, the saintly Macrina,
with whom, when she was near unto death, he has the
conversation which makes up this treatise on
(* The Soul
and the Resurrection," and what we have just quoted is
given as her words. It is sometimes difficult to determine.
which is her part and which is his own, nor does it mat-
ter, since he indorses all the conclusions. They were at
one in their views on destiny.
Diodorus, appointed Bishop of Tarsus A.D. 378, distin-
1 "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. v., p. 465.
J
M
(d
"
283
guished for the influence which he exerted in the Syrian
churches, was of the Antiochian School, and in opposi-
tion to the prevalent allegorical interpretation of Scripture
he adhered to the natural and simple import of the text.
Only a fragment is preserved of his once numerous writ-
ings, but in this his Universalism is manifest.
DIODORUS.
A perpetual reward," says he, "is appointed to the
good, a recompense of their works, which is worthy the
justice and equity of the Rewarder. For the wicked, also,
there are punishments, not perpetual, however, lest the
immortality prepared for them should become a disad-
vantage; but they are to be tormented for a certain brief
period, proportioned to the desert and measure of their
faults and impiety, according to the amount of malice in
their works. They shall, therefore, suffer punishment for
a brief space, but immortal blessedness, having no end,
awaits them. For if the rewards of the good surpass their
works as much as the duration of the eternity prepared
for them exceeds the duration of their conflicts in this
world, so the punishments to be inflicted for heinous and
manifold sins are far more surpassed by the magnitude of
mercy. The resurrection, therefore, is regarded as a bless-
ing, not only to the good, but also to the evil. For the
grace of God copiously and magnificently honors the good
[that is, beyond their deserts]; and it adjudges punishments
to the evil in mercy and kindness.
91
The prevalence of Universalism in the fourth century.
is unmistakably evident. Origenists abounded, and many
who opposed Origen yet advocated Universalism on other
grounds. Of the six theological schools in the Christian
world, in one, the School of Northern Africa, the doctrine
of the eternal punishment of the sinful was taught; one,
the School of Ephesus, taught the doctrine of the annihila-
1 Ballou's "Ancient History of Universalism," p. 185.
284
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
tion of the wicked; four, the schools at Alexandria, Casa-
rea, Antioch, Eastern Syria-sometimes held at Edessa
and sometimes at Nisibis-taught Universalism.¹ Nean-
der, speaking of two of these schools, says that from them
"there went forth an opposition to the doctrine of everlast-
ing punishment, which had its ground in a deeper Christian
interest [than that in which it was elsewhere manifest];
inasmuch as the doctrine of a universal restoration was
closely connected with the entire dogmatic systems of both
these schools, namely, that of Origen and the school of
Antioch." Gieseler says: "The belief in the unalienable
power of amendment in all intelligent beings and the lim-
ited duration of future punishment was so general even
in the West, and amongst the opponents of Origen, that
it seemed entirely independent of his system." And he
adds in a note the following, from "Augustin. Enchirid.
ad Laurent," c. xii. 2: "Some-nay, very many-from
human sympathy, commiserate the eternal punishment of
the damned and their perpetual torture without intermis-
sion, and thus do not believe in it; not, indeed, by oppos-
ing the Holy Scriptures, but by softening all the severe
things according to their own feelings, and giving a milder
meaning to those things which are said in them more ter-
ribly than truly."3
Jak
Vi
Dr. Beecher bears witness that "all who held to uni-
versal restoration in the early ages were, as a universally
conceded fact, eminent and devoted Christians. Nor is
this all. They were peculiarly distinguished for the ex-
cellence and loveliness of their Christian character. . . . It
is also true that the defenders of the doctrine of restora-
History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii., p. 676.
3 "Text-book of Ecclesiastical History," vol. i., p. 212.
8
Gr
1
History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution," by
Edward Beecher, D.D., chap. xxii.
2 (C
7
285
tion were not exceeded in intellectual power, learning, and
Christian character by any men of the age.
Doederlein, in his "Institutes of Christian Theology,"
says that: "In proportion as any one was eminent in learn-
ing in Christian Antiquity, the more did he cherish and
defend the hope of the termination of future torments."
Passing into the fifth century, we first come to Theodore,
Bishop of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia, A.D. 392–428. Neander
says of him and his Universalism:
"The doctrine of universal restoration was closely con-
nected with the fundamental views of Theodore of Mop-
suestia concerning the two great periods in the develop-
ment of the rational creation, and concerning the final end
of the redemption, whereby the immutability of a divine
life should take the place of that mutability and exposure
to temptation which had before prevailed in the entire
rational creation. Moral evil appeared here, in fact, as a
universally necessary point of transition for the develop-
ment of freedom. Diodorus of Tarsus had already un-
folded this doctrine in his work, which has not come down
to us, on the incarnation of the Deity, and Theodore exhib-
ited it in his Commentary on the Gospels. In these writ-
ings they adduced many other special reasons against the
eternity of punishment.
God would not revive the
wicked at the resurrection, if they must needs suffer only
punishment without reformation.' ” 2
1
2
THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA,
"(
•
"1
Theodore, in common with the Antiochian School,
adopted the principles of historical and grammatical inter-
pretation of the Scriptures, and published a work against
the allegorical expositions of Origen; nor did he hold to
Origen's doctrine of preëxistence. He was, says Dorner,
the crown and climax of the School of Antioch. The
--
History of the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution," pp. 303, 308.
History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii., p. 679.
Sta
286
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
compass of his learning, his acuteness, and, as we must
suppose, also, the force of his personal character, conjoined
with his labors through many years as a teacher both of
churches and of young and talented disciples and as a pro-
lific writer, gained for him the title of Magister Orientis." 1
The following extracts from his writings are given by
Dr. Beecher:
(i
It pleased God to divide his creatures into two states.
One is the present, in which he has made all things muta-
ble. The other is to occur when he shall renew all things
and render them immutable. Of this final state he has
showed us the beginning, in the dispensation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, whom in his human nature he raised from
the dead and rendered immortal in body and immutable
in mind, by which he demonstrated that the same result.
shall be effected in all his creatures. . . . God knew that
men would sin in all ways, but permitted this result to
come to pass, knowing that it would ultimately be for
their advantage. For since God created man when he
did not exist, and made him ruler of so extended a sys-
tem, and offered so great blessings for his enjoyment, it
was impossible that he should not have prevented the ex-
istence of sin if he had not known that it would be ulti-
mately for his advantage. . . It was not possible that
in any other way we should have a full knowledge of the
nature and consequences of sin and the evils of our sinful
passions and know our weakness disclosed in these experi-
ences, so as to show by contrast the greatness of the im-
mutability to be given us, unless it had been so ordained
by God from the beginning, that by experiment and com-
parison we might know the magnitude of those infinite
benefits that are to be conferred on us. On this account,
M
•
•
-
Valg
1 (
On the Person of Christ," vol. i., div. ii., p. 50. Where, also (pp. 33-
50), see a full statement of Theodore's doctrine.
THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA.
knowing that it would, on the whole, be for our advantage,
he permitted sin to enter. . . . It is the prerogative of a
rational creature to distinguish between good and evil
things. If, therefore, there were no opposite qualities, it
would not be possible for him to discern the differences.
Therefore, at the outset, he introduced these great con-
trarieties into his creation. . . . God did not introduce
death among men unwillingly, and contrary to his judg-
ment, nor did he permit the entrance of sin for no benefi-
cial end. He was not unable to prevent it if he desired,
but he permitted it because he knew that it would be
beneficial to us, or rather to all intelligent beings, that
there should be first a dispensation including evils, and
that then they should be removed and universal good
take their place. . . . In the latter he will bring all to
immortality and immutability."1
Theodore is supposed to have been the founder of the
Nestorian Church, which is said to have equaled in mem-
bership at one period in its history the combined adher-
ents of both the Greek and Latin communions, and to
have had no rival in missionary zeal. For this church
Theodore prepared the sacramental liturgy, in which the
priest sets forth "the Son of Man, an acceptable victim
offered to God the Lord for all creatures in the universe.'
In his "Confession of Faith" he thus speaks of Christ's
relation to the salvation of all: "He is called the second
Adam by the blessed Paul; constituted an Adam of the
same nature, and showing to us the future state and exhib-
iting so much difference from the first Adam as will exist.
between him who bestows the ineffable gifts of the future
state and him who began the present mournful state of
things. In like manner, he is called the second man, as
disclosing the second state, because Adam began the first,
1 ་་ History of the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution," pp. 222–224.
さ
​287
1
K
288
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
+
a state mortal and possibly full of many pains, in which
he showed a typical similitude to him. But Christ the
Lord began the second state. He in the future, revealed
from heaven, will restore us all into communion with him-
self. For the Apostle says, 'The first man was of the earth,
earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven,' that is,
who is to appear hereafter thence, that he may restore all
to the likeness of himself." 1
4
Johannes Cassianius, belonging to this period, declared,
according to Ueberweg, that he "could not admit that
God would save only a portion of the race and that Christ
died only for the elect." Hagenbach quotes him ³
as say-
ing that the doctrine that God "would save only a few is
a great sacrilege or blasphemy." Neander says that his
views on "grace" and "justification" took their direction.
and coloring from his views of divine love, "which ex-
tends to all men, which wills the salvation of all, and refers
everything to this; even subordinating the punishment of
the wicked to this simple end;" and he represents him as
saying that we ought to thank God "that, by his secret
influences, we are punished on account of our sins; that
we are sometimes drawn to salvation even against our
wills; that finally, he draws our free will itself, prone by
its own inclination to what is vicious and wrong, into the
path of virtue."
—
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, in Syria, A.D. 423-457, was
also of the Antiochian School, Theodorus being his chief
instructor. He also refers to his obligations to Diodorus.
"As a shepherd of souls he was unceasing in his efforts
to win heathen, heretics, and Jews to the true faith. His
1 " History of the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution," pp. 225, 227.
2 4 History of Philosophy," vol. i., p. 345.
3 "History of Doctrines," vol. i., p. 307.
A "
History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii., p. 628.
289
diocese, when he assumed its government, was a very hot-
bed of heresy. Nevertheless in the famous letter to Leo
he could boast that not a tare was left to spoil the crop." 1
Called before a council, A.D. 450, where he was bidden
to anathematize Nestorius, he testified: "I was brought
up by the orthodox, I was taught by the orthodox, I have
preached orthodoxy;" 2 a declaration which shows that his
Universalism-which is unquestioned-as well as that of
his teachers, was no bar to his and their orthodoxy.
THEODORET.
On Adam's being forbidden to take of the tree of life,
Theodoret says it was "not because he grudged men im-
mortal life, but to check the course of sin. So death is a
means of cure, not a punishment." In comment on 1 Co-
rinthians xv. 27, 28, on the words "that God may be all
in all": "He is everywhere now in accordance with his
essence, for his nature is uncircumscribed; as says the
divine Apostle, 'in him we live and move and have our
being.' But as regards his good pleasure, he is not in all,
for 'the Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in
those that hope in his mercy.' But in these he is not
wholly. 'For no one is pure of uncleanness, and in thy
sight shall no man living be justified, and if thou, Lord,
shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?' There-
fore the Lord taketh pleasure wherein they do right, and
taketh not pleasure wherein they err. But in the life to
come, where corruption ceases and immortality is given,
passions have no place; and after these have been quite
driven out no kind of sin is committed for the future.
Thus hereafter God shall be all in all, when all have been
released from sin and turned to him and are incapable of
any inclination to the worse." 3
Rev. Dr. O. Cone, president of Buchtel College, makes
1 "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers," second series, vol. iii., p. 4.
2 Ibid., p. II.
3 Ibid., p. 17.
Gada
290
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
}
}
"
the following quotations from various writings of Theod-
oret. From his "Tenth Orátion on Providence," this:
4
"Wherefore he [Christ] says elsewhere, 'Now is the
judgment of this world, now shall the Prince of this world
be cast out.' For now that judgment has been established,
he shall be condemned and ejected from his sovereignty,
as one who has unjustly withstood me. Then, teaching
that he would free from the power of death not only his
own body, but, at the same time, the entire nature of the
human race, he presently adds,' And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto me,' for I will not
suffer what I have undertaken to raise the body only, but
I will fully accomplish the resurrection to all men. For it
was for this that I came, and assumed the form of a ser-
vant, and as a lamb before its shearer I opened not my
mouth. The blessed Paul also speaks to the same effect,
writing to the Colossians, and through them to all men:
'And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumci-
sion of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him-
self, having forgiven you all trespasses,' etc. From this
we learn that he has paid the debt for us, and blotted
out the handwriting that was against us;
and having
done these things, he quickened together with himself the
entire nature of men. And there are myriads of other tes-
timonies in the Holy Scriptures teaching these things, but
the work of collecting them all, and giving to each its ap-
propriate interpretation, would be immense.'
From his commentary on Ephesians i. 10, this: "For
through the dispensation or incarnation of Christ the nature
of men arises and puts on incorruption. . . . And the visi-
ble creation shall be liberated from corruption and shall
attain incorruption, and the inhabitants of the invisible
worlds shall live in perpetual joy, for grief and sadness
and groaning shall be done away."
Bukkak
+
k
募
​291
})
Again, in his commentary on Hebrews ii. 9, "That he,
by the grace of God, should taste death for every man,
he quotes Romans viii. 21, and says that the angels shall
be filled with joy at the success of the work of Christ.
"For if they rejoice on account of one sinner, much more
shall they be filled with joy seeing the salvation of so many
myriads. For all, therefore, he [Christ] endured his sav-
ing passion." 1
BAR SUDAILI.
-
Neander mentions, as belonging to this period, another
Universalist: "A cloister at Edessa, in Mesopotamia, had
for its head, in the last times of the fifth century, an abbot
by the name of Bar Sudaili. . . . He maintained that as
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one divine essence, and
as the humanity formed one nature with the Godhead in
Christ, and his body became of like essence to the divinity
(was deified), so through him all fallen beings should also
be exalted to unity with God; so that God, as Paul ex-
presses it, should be all in all. . . . As a transition-point
to that universal restoration, he supposed a millennial king-
dom of exalted happiness on earth at the close of the
earthly course of the world; . . . that the Sabbath of
that millennial period of rest, the Sunday, answered to
the commencement of a new, higher, eternal order of the
world, after the universal restoration." 2
In giving an account of the steps and motives leading
to the condemnation of Origen by the Emperor Justinian,
and, out of revenge therefor, the success of the Origenists
in securing the condemnation of Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Neander makes mention cf a work by Facundus, Bishop of
Hermiana, against the movement in opposition to Origen.
In it he refers to a book written by Domitian about the
1 "Universalist Quarterly," N. S., vol. iii. (1866), pp. 248 ff.
247 History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. ii., pp. 556, 557.
292
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
year 546. Dr. Ballou makes the following citation from
Facundus:
"Domitian, formerly Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, writ-
ing a book to Pope Vigilius, complained of those who con-
tradicted the doctrine of Origen, that human souls existed
before the body in a certain happy state, and that all who
are consigned to everlasting torments shall be restored,
together with the devil and his angels, to their primeval
blessedness. Domitian also asserts that they have even
anathematized the most holy and renowned doctors, on
account of those things which were agitated in favor of
preëxistence and universal restoration. This they have
done under pretense of condemning Origen; but in real-
ity condemning all the saints who were before him, and
who have been after him.'"1
It has been commonly asserted and very generally be-
lieved that Origen's Universalism was pronounced hereti-
cal and condemned by the Fifth General Council, A.D. 553.
It is now conceded by the best authorities that this coun-
cil has been confounded with the local synod which Men-
nas convened by order of Justinian, at Constantinople,
A.D. 541. Gieseler says that at the council, A.D. 553,"of
the Origenists no notice was taken," and in a footnote
adds: "Though as early as 'Cyril Scythopolit,' in 'Vita
Sabae' (c. 90) and 'Evagrius' (vol. iv., p. 37), the Fifth
Council was supposed to have condemned Origen, as was
afterward generally believed. The mistake arose from
confounding this council with that under Mennas. For
proof of the mistake, see Walch's 'Ketzerhistorie,' Th.
viii., S. 280 ff." 2 Neander ("History of the Christian Relig-
ion and Church," vol. ii., p. 538) says that the condem-
nation of Origen was by the "Home Synod," convened
1
2
((
Ancient History of Universalism," p. 265.
Text-book of Ecclesiastical History," vol. i., p. 326.
MAXIMUS THE CONFESSOR.
293
by Mennas. And Dr. Schaff ("History of the Christian
Church," vol. ii., p. 612) says that "Hefele conclusively
proves the anathematisms against Origen were passed by
a local synod of Constantinople, under Mennas."
It is also in dispute whether the Council of A.D. 553 was
a General Council. The Pope of Rome refused to recog-
nize it from the first, and was not present in person nor
by legate. It was composed of Eastern prelates, governed
by an Eastern patriarch, and followed the dictation of Jus-
tinian, an Eastern Emperor, who had an itching for theo-
logical leadership, and a stubborn pride of opinion which
never allowed him to listen to reason when he had once
committed himself to any measure.
Te
It is very certain that no ecumenical council has ever
put the doctrine of endless punishment, annihilation, or
Universalism into a creed. And it is as obvious to those
who familiarize themselves with the motives for calling,
the mode of conducting, and the shameful deceptions and
wranglings which characterized the synods and councils
held in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, that what
they did is of very little consequence in deciding the truth
of any doctrine; although such was the malignity attend-
ing the enforcement of their doings that many a good
cause and a fair name greatly suffered therefrom.
It was
the beginning and rapid progress to that period so well
and so truly known as the "Dark Ages." Until the Ref-
ormation dawned the traces of Universalism are few. But
among the few whose writings the Church of Rome has
permitted to remain, or rather which, in spite of their
efforts to destroy, are providentially preserved, are testi-
monies to its being held and proclaimed by men eminent.
for piety and learning.
p
Maximus the Confessor, A.D. 580-663, whose learning,
ability, and "zeal in endeavoring to promote a vital, prac-
294
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
V
tical Christianity, flowing out of the disposition of the
heart," are attested by Mosheim, Milner, Neander, and
Ritter, was, according to Ueberweg and Ritter, a Uni-
versalist. Says the former: "Maximus taught that God
had revealed himself through nature and by his Word.
The incarnation of God in Christ was the culmination of
revelation, and would therefore have taken place even if
man had not fallen. The universe will end in the union
of all things with God." Ritter says: "The doctrine of
Maximus, concerning the union of all things with God,
leads him by consequence to the doctrine also of the res-
toration of all fallen souls. He found this in Gregory of
Nyssa, and he could not do otherwise than favor it, since
it stands in closest agreement with his own doctrine, that
all things will be united with God through his Son. The
Word of God is to become all in all, and to save all; at
the end of the world there shall be a universal renewal of
the human race. . . . The soul ever seeks rest; and as it
can obtain this nowhere but in God, it cannot cease to
strive till it has found him. Then shall the soul take its
body again, recover all its virtues, and all its fallen powers
restored to perfect soundness, and have no more remem-
brance of its former evil." 1
We find no distinguished name in the eighth century, but
the presence of Universalism is indicated in the instructions
given by Pope Gregory II. to certain missionaries sent to
the Germans, that they shall so teach the people that they
shall not fall into the error that all are to be saved; also
in the declaration of Ambrosius, an Italian abbot, that some
teach that sinners "ought not to be punished without end;
1 Ueberweg's “History of Philosophy,” vol. i., p. 352.
tory of Christian Philosophy," vol. ii., pp. 550, 551.
(7
History of the Christian Church," vol. iv.,. p. 625.
Jag
("
Ritter's His-
See also Dr. Schaff's
I
1
JOHN SCOTUS ERIGENA.
295
})
that God is just and will not punish with eternal torment'
an act of a finite being.
In the ninth century there are several kindred testi-
monies, and the distinct avowal of Universalism by John
Scotus Erigena (A.D. 810-877), unquestionably the great-
est scholar and the most independent thinker of his times.
Having been in early life a student in many lands, he came,
in the maturity of his powers, to France, where he was
honored with a home in the palace of Charles the Bald,
and was appointed chief or director of the School of the
Palace, an institution that was "the pride of the royal
court and the chosen seat of French learning in the ninth
century." Associated here with scholars and men of genius
called together from all parts of Europe, he devoted his
life to the development of themes of the loftiest nature and
of the highest interest to humanity. But he was greatly
in advance of his age, a period in which the Latin Church,
then dominant, was not encouraging thought among the
masses, but was, in matters of faith, compelling obedience.
to its authority.
Vil
His Universalism is stated by the late Rev. Dr. H. Bal-
lou, 2d, in thus describing his theory of man and his des-
tiny: "In his original condition, he was a pure spirit,
with an immortal body, composed not of matter, but of a
celestial element; and it was not till he sinned that his
soul was obliged to form for itself an earthly body. He
still retains the celestial body within the present material
one; he retains his moral freedom, also, and is still the
summary of all things. But his fall interrupted the com-
munication of the world with God, and spread disorder
through the whole, so that he could no longer fulfill his
function as the reconciling medium. Jesus Christ took
his place, and repaired what man had broken. He will
296
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
accomplish the original design, bringing all humanity into
its harmonious relation to God; and, as all creation is
contained in humanity, the whole will thus be restored
together. This is the last grand act in the divine drama
—the return of all things to God." Adopting the axiom of
Origen ("De Principiis "), he says that "the end must be
as the beginning; for the conclusion is determined before-
hand by the agencies in which the commencement arose;
and, moreover, we actually see, that, in all nature, every-
thing tends back to its origin. The first step in the return
of humanity to God is the death of the body, by which
man is loosed from the degrading bonds of matter; the
second is the resurrection; which will be followed by the
transfiguration of the body into a spiritual body and the
restoration of the whole being to the state of those primary
ideas which existed in the Son as the original type. The
process will be completed when man, containing all things
in himself, will live in perfect union with God. Then God
alone will appear. His creatures will not be absorbed in
him, so as to lose their identity; they will be transfigured
with his likeness. As the air still exists when the light
of the sun thoroughly illuminates it; as the iron has not
ceased to be when, all red in the flame, it seems changed
into fire; so our souls will subsist, more beautiful, united
with God, penetrated and clothed with his glory. Evil,
with its attendant, misery, will be abolished from the uni-
verse; for it has no substantial existence, and the good-
ness of God, which alone is eternal and infinite, must
overcome.” 1
A
From this time until near the close of the thirteenth
century, as Dr. Schaff has shown, the priests and laity of
2
1 "Universalist Quarterly," vol. vii. (1850), pp. 99, 100. See also Dr.
Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," vol. iv., p. 54.2.
2 "History of the Christian Church," vol. iv.
ì
ALMARIC AND ALBERT.
297
the Latin Church were ignorant and scandalously immoral.
All voices against their tenets were hushed by force, and
the books in which the so-called heresies were declared
were burned. Among those who thus suffered were Ray-
nold, abbot of the monastery of St. Martin, at Nevers,
France, who was accused of teaching among other here-
sies "that all men will eventually be saved, as Origen had
taught"; and Almaric or Amalric of Bena, a teacher of
theology and philosophy in the University of Paris, who
taught that "all creatures, in the end, would return to
God." For this and other heresies he was summoned to
Rome, A.D. 1204, and there condemned by the pope. Soon
after his return to Paris he died of grief. After his death
it was found that he had established a sect, which, under
the lead of David of Dinanto, had become thoroughly
pantheistic. In A.D. 1210 such of the sect as would not
recant were burned at the stake; the name of Almaric
was anathematized and his bones dug up and thrown on
a dunghill.¹
Albert-commonly called Albertus Magnus-Bishop of
Regensburg, A.D. 1260, of whom Neander says, "I is great
mind grasped the whole compass of human knowledge as
it existed in his time," believed in the redemption of all.
He says: "This [the restoration of all] will occur when
all love, all desires, every effort, mind and thought, every-
thing that has transpired, which transpires now, and which
is yet to occur, everything that is said and hoped, shall
belong to God; and the unity which exists between the
Father and the Son shall be manifested in all hearts."2
In the East, Solomon, Metropolitan Bishop of Bassorah,
on the Euphrates, was a writer of considerable renown
1 Neander's "History of Christian Religion and Church," vol. iv.,
PP. 445 ff.
2 Universalism: That is, God All in All." Stuttgart, 1863. Quoted in
Universalist Quarterly," N. S., vol. i. (1864), p. 252.
298
[CHAP. I.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
among the Nestorians. "Some of his works, in the Syriac
language, yet remain, though only in manuscript. In one
of them he discusses the question Whether the demons
and sinners who are now in hell shall at length obtain
mercy, after having suffered their appointed punishment
and been purified?' In answer he quotes the affirmative
opinion of Theodorus of Mopsuestia and of Diodorus of
Tarsus, and subscribes to it himself."1
2
Dr. Ballou quotes Dupin's "Ecclesiastical History" to
the effect that the Lollards had for their leader Walter
Lollard, who began to disperse his errors about the year
1315, and that they spread through Germany, and that
one of their errors was the belief that the damned in
hell and the evil angels should one day be saved." And
the same authority is quoted for a council convened by
Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury, A.D. 1368, in which
judgment was given against thirty propositions that were
taught in his province; one of which was that "all the
damned, even the demons, may be restored and become
happy."
As early as the eleventh century organizations were
created within the church for the purpose of elevating the
standard of spiritual life. The first of these arose in the
Netherlands, and was composed of women who called
themselves Beguines. Early in the thirteenth century
they were joined by the male communities of the Beg-
hards, and a hundred years later the Lollards came into
notice and "became uncommonly numerous. These prayer
makers and chanters-for such is certainly the most cor-
rect interpretation of the words Beghards and Lollards-
devoted their attention wholly to practical objects. For
the most part they lived together in separate houses of
1 Ballou's “Ancient History of Universalism,” p. 300.
2 Ibid., p. 302.
GUAR
299
their own, with the utmost simplicity, supported by the
earnings of their manual industry and by charitable dona-
tions, and chiefly occupied with works of Christian benevo-
lence. In these labors they not only manifested blame-
lessness of life, but did great good."
1 Gradually mystical
notions prevailed among them, and the Beghards became
known as the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit.
Some of them were pantheistic in their theories, and some
remained theists. Henry Eckart, a Dominican monk, was
the learned leader of mystical pantheistic thought, and
John Ruysbroek was the chief representative of mysti-
cism reared on the basis of Christian theism. Under the
impulse of his teachings, a new society, called the Brethren
of the Common Lot, sprang up; the old societies of the
Beguines, Beghards, and Lollards having degenerated and
fallen to pieces of themselves, or been suppressed. Ger-
hard Groot, born about the middle of the fourteenth cent-
ury, was active in forming the Brotherhood of the Common
Lot, but his most forceful incitement thereto came from
his visit to Ruysbroek, whose personal qualities and teach-
ings so charmed him that he began at once to found the
new order.
This Society of the Common Lot bore a cer-
tain resemblance to the philosophical and ascetical confed-
erations of Gentiles and Jews in ancient times; but was
more free, open, and practical. . . . Its grand object was
the establishment, exemplification, and spread of practical
Christianity. This they endeavored to accomplish, in the
first instance, among themselves, by the whole style of
their association, by the moral rigor and simplicity of their
manner of living, by religious conversations, mutual con-
fessions, admonitions, lectures, and social exercises of de-
votion. For the promotion of the same object outwardly,
they labored by transcribing and propagating sacred Script-
1 Ullman's "Reformers before the Reformation," vol. ii., p. 12.
BRETHREN OF THE COMMON LOT
J
JA
Ivank
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
4
I
300
[CHAP. I.
ure and proper religious treatises, but most of all by the
instruction of the common people in Christianity, and the
revival and improvement of the education of youth. In
this last department they formed an epoch. They not
merely gave instruction gratuitously and thereby rendered
the arts of reading and writing attainable by all, both rich
and poor, and not only promoted in every way the prog-
ress of the more indigent class of students, but, what was
of most consequence, they imbued education with quite a
new life and a purer and nobler spirit.'
"1
In the early part of the history of this society little
was said of the doctrine of the last things. Later, John
Wessel, their great theologian, evidently did not believe
in Universalism; but Ruysbroek, whose teachings led to
the forming of the society, speaks plainly on the subject.
"Man," he says, "having proceeded from God, is destined
to return, and become one with him again. This oneness,
however, is not to be understood as meaning that we be-
come wholly identified with him and lose our own being
as creatures, for that is an impossibility. What it is to be
understood as meaning is, that we are conscious of being
wholly in God, and at the same time also wholly in our-
selves; that we are united with God, and yet at the same
time remain different from him."2
"3
Such, also, was the Universalism of John Tauler, Ruys-
broek's most celebrated pupil: "As Jesus came from the
Father, and returns to the Father again, so is this the
destination of every man. Or, as Petersen quotes him.
more fully: "Christ is the brightness of God's glory and
the express image of his person; for this essential Word
and Son of God is eternally begotten of the Father, and
remains none the less eternally in the fatherly heart, and
1 Ullman's "Reformers before the Reformation," vol. ii., pp. 70 ff.
2 Ibid., p. 40.
3 Ibid., p. 208.
i
JOHN OF GOCH.
301
through him has the Father made everything that is made,
as St. John has shown. Now in like manner as all things
had their beginning and origin in the Deity, through the
birth of the Eternal Word from the Father, so also do all
creatures exist in their being through the same birth of
the Son, and therefore shall they all come again to their
original, that is, God the Father, through the same, his
Eternal Son."1
John of Goch, born about 1400, in the Duchy of Cleves,
was educated, as Dr. Ullman confidently assumes, “in one
of the institutions of the Brethren of the Common Lot";
and is described by him as "a man of great sensibility,
with an intellect equally profound and acute, of glowing
piety, and a very subtle power of argumentation." He
was a biblical theologian, "imbued with the spirit of the
Apostle of the Gentiles, and deeply and vitally smitten
with a relish for his doctrine of justification through faith,
working by love."
"The whole substance of his theology," says Dr. Ullman,
"may be condensed into the words Of God, through God,
to God. God is the fountain alike of all being and of all
well-being. Deriving as he does his existence from God,
the chief end of man is fellowship with God by spontane-
ous love.
This end, however, now that man is a sinner,
can be attained only through God, and in the use of those
means which his grace and spirit supply, so that the life
of man here on earth, no less than the higher stage of its
evolution, and the blessedness in which that is to terminate,
are essentially a divine work and gift. . . . The history
of the serpent, the woman, and the man is the moral his-
tory of mankind, and what it typically portrays is repeated
afresh in every individual. In spite of sin, however, man
1 Translated by Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer, in "Christian Ambassador," June
18, 1853.
302
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
still retains the will in a state of freedom from constraint
and of susceptibility for good. This includes the possibil-
ity of recovery.
For man, however, once fallen into sin
and guilt, recovery is inconceivable by any other means
than grace.
The mediator of recovering grace is Christ,
the only perfectly righteous human being. . . . By this
one person all who have fallen into a state of enmity are
again reconciled to God, which does not mean that there.
is anything like hostility on the part of God toward man
requiring to be removed, but which means that on the
part of man the principle of opposition to God, or sin,
is extirpated, and the principle of love implanted in its
room.”i
He frequently reverts to this latter thought, that the
work of Christ is not to reconcile God to man, but, as the
Scriptures teach, to reconcile man to God. Thus:
In forming to ourselves a conception of the redemption
instituted by Christ, we must not imagine that there had
existed any such enmity between God and man as some-
times exists between two hostile individuals, for whose rec-
onciliation it is necessary that, on both sides, friendship
should be restored. No: the antithesis is that between
righteousness and sin. Hence there is hatred only on the
side of sin, and the moment sin is taken away enmity also
ceases. Christ accordingly has reconciled us to God, not
as foe is reconciled to foe. The method rather is, that our
sin, through which we manifested hostility to God, being
abolished by Christ's death, we now begin to love him,
whereas he never withdrew his love from us, but loved
us from the foundation of the world, and even while we
were his enemies.”2
Everything that God has made is, Goch maintains, good.
"(
1 Ullman's Reformers before the Reformation," vol. i., pp. 39 ff.
2 Ibid., p. 77 £.
ì
JOHN OF GOCH.
303
But man, who is God's work, is both good and evil.
Whence comes the evil? In the misuse of his moral free-
dom. "In virtue of this freedom, it was possible for man
to stand and retain the goodness of his nature." He finds
then that there are two evils in the world: "the first is sin,
which God did not create, and which is therefore properly
nothing but a mere privation of that which is naturally
good; the second is the penalty appointed for it by divine
justice. This second kind of evil, being produced by God,
is for that reason likewise good, for although it may be
bad for the body, which it destroys, it is yet good for the
soul, which it heals." The doctrine of "total depravity"
he repudiates. Nay, it may be asserted generally that
the bad never exists without the good, and can only exist
in connection with it; for if there were nothing good which
could be corrupted, there could also be nothing bad to
corrupt it. The good which cannot possibly be corrupted
is the perfect; that, however, which can be so greatly cor-
rupted as in every respect to be despoiled of good is no
longer competent to exist."1
*C
Not to multiply quotations setting forth his opinions,
we add but this:
CC
In fact, the thought which lies at the basis of all his
theology may be expressed in some such formula as this:
God, who is love, is thereby the source of all good. Or,
God is the everlasting and creative love, and man the
created, which, having emanated from God, must through
God return to him again; and the means by which this
return is effected is Christ's work of redemption leading
by love to liberty."2
About 1411 there was discovered in Flanders a sect
which called themselves "Men of Understanding." The
1 Ullman's "Reformers before the Reformation," vol. i.,
2 Ibid., p. 52.
p. 64.
304
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. I.
learning and ability of one of its founders, William of
Hildesheim, a Carmelite monk, is so far conceded that
Mosheim regards it as proof that some of the fanatical
sentiments attributed to the sect by its enemies could not
have been taught by him. They are supposed to have
been generally related to the earlier Brethren of the Free
Spirit; and to have especially antagonized the Roman
Church on the power claimed by the latter to forgive sins
and to teach that voluntary penances are necessary to sal-
vation. They also taught "that the only resurrection of
the body which would ever take place had taken place
already in Christ; that the spirit is not defiled by bodily
sin; that the punishments of hell are not eternal; and that
even the evil angels would be eventually saved."1
John Picus, prince of Mirandula and Concordia, in Italy,
was, according to Mosheim, "a very finished scholar, a
great linguist and philosopher, a great disputant, and then
a sober theologian, and at last a humble and zealous Chris-
tian."
He presented himself at Rome in 1486 and set
forth several hundred propositions, which, according to
the custom of the time, he engaged to maintain in public
disputation. One of these propositions was that "infinite
pain is not due even to mortal sin; because sin is finite,
and therefore merits but finite punishment"; and another
that "
there is more reason to believe that Origen was
saved than that he was damned." He was not answered,
but silenced by the pope.
Dr. Ballou makes mention of Peter d'Aranda, Bishop
of Calahorra in Old Castile, Spain, as being degraded and
condemned to perpetual imprisonment, A.D. 1498, on being
convicted, it is said, of Judaism. But as he is known to
have celebrated mass daily, it is certain that he was no
Schaff-Herzog
1 Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History," vol. ii., p. 467 f.
Encyclopædia, vol. ii., p. 1466.
PETER D'ARANDA.
305
Jew. In his prayers he said, "Glory to the Father," with-
out adding, "to the Son," or "to the Holy Ghost," and
was doubtless a Unitarian Christian. He held that in-
dulgences were of no avail, but were invented for the
profit that was drawn from them; that there was neither
purgatory nor hell, but only paradise."
We have thus traced the history of Universalist thought,
based on various philosophies and interpretations of Script-
ure, to the closing years of the Dark Ages. We have
found it most prominent in the brightest, freest, and most
prosperous days of early Christian times, and not wholly
extinct when put under the ban in years of repression of
thought and speech, days of ignorance, intolerance, and
gloom.
(C
CHAPTER II.
FROM LUTHER TO THE PRESENT TIME.
THE Protestant Reformation, from which we date the
modern history of Universalism, began in October, 1517,
when Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic monk, preacher,
and professor of philosophy in the University of Witten-
berg, nailed to the doors of the castle church his ninety-
five Latin Theses on the subject of indulgences, and invited
a public discussion; although his decisive act of breaking
away from his church was delayed until December 10,
1520, when he publicly burned the pope's bull of excom-
munication.
Alg
Two years later (1522) Luther in a letter to Hansen
von Rechenberg, on the question "Whether God can or
will save those who die without faith," states that "there
are among us here, as there have been at times among
the most eminent people, as Origen and his like, those to
whom it seems quite too harsh and severe, and so unbe-
coming the divine goodness, that God should cast off men,
and thus have created them for eternal torment.
They go still further, and maintain that even the devils
will at last be released and not remain eternally damned."
Personally he is convinced that eternal damnation is taught
in the Scriptures, "and quite right," he says, "would it
be to conclude, that, were it not a judgment of God, it
would be mere malice, arbitrary power, and injustice. . . .
306
307
For the eye of nature must be entirely plucked out, and
mere faith substituted, otherwise one cannot avoid being
shocked and dangerously offended at it; and when the
young and inexperienced in faith fall upon it (as it com-
monly happens that every one must commence at the
highest point), and begin to contemplate it in a natural
light, they are very near receiving a great and sudden
fall, and being betrayed into a secret contradiction of will
and hatred toward God, from which it is difficult afterward
to recover themselves. Hence we should advise them to
remain undisturbed on account of the judgments of God
till they are well grown in faith. . . . So it is not diffi-
cult to answer this question; but still it is dangerous.
Nature and reason cannot bear it; it terrifies too much
for them: weak faith also cannot bear it; it is too offensive
for that.
What shall we do then? . . We should
put off this dealing of God as the highest and most excel-
lent till we have become firm and strong, or else what we
think, write, and speak on the subject is vain and mis-
chievous. . . . See well to it with whom this subject is
discussed, and keep silence or speak accordingly. Are
they naturally rational, intelligent people? then avoid this
question. Are they, on the contrary, simple, deep, spirit-
ual, and experienced people? there is no more useful sub-
ject to treat upon with them than this."
CC
•
*
MARTIN LUTHER.
師
​Now," he says, "to come to the answer. We have
very strong passages to show that without faith God
neither will nor can save any one. It is just as im-
possible for God to save men without faith as it is for
the Divine Majesty to lie. . . . It would be quite another
question whether God can give faith to some, in or after
death, and so save them through faith. Who doubts that
he can do this? But that he does it we cannot prove;
although we read that he once raised the dead and then
•
308
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
gave them faith. Now, in this matter, he does what he
does he either gives faith, or he gives it not."1
There are several things in this letter which may profit-
ably be considered, but the very significant one to us is
that he knows that there were some in his day and country
who believed in Universalism, and that they commanded.
no little attention.
Eight years later we have Universalists more particu-
larly designated. The Augsburg Confession, drawn up by
Luther and Melanchthon in 1530, was intended to express
the views of the Reformers, and at the same time, if pos-
sible, conciliate the Romanists. The latter had charged
that Luther's movement was only the precursor of other
and more heretical schisms, and that already other sects
were springing up. In the Confession Luther assented to
some things which he knew were not true, in asserting
the agreement of the Reformers with the Romanists in all
matters of doctrine, while Melanchthon in "his desire for
union and peace deceived himself";2 and they united in
condemning all others who were opposing Rome. Zwingli,
although not mentioned by name, fell under their ban;
and in the seventeenth article, after affirming their faith
in the doctrine of the eternal torments of the wicked, they
add: "We condemn the Anabaptists, who maintain that
there shall be an end to the punishment of the damned
and of the devils."
These Anabaptists originated in Switzerland, where
they were persecuted by both Reformers and Romanists.
Thence they went to southern and middle Germany, and
later they were in northern Germany and developed a won-
derful missionary zeal. At Augsburg they had gathered
G
1 Translation by Thomas J. Sawyer, D.D., "Universalist Quarterly,"
vol. vii. (1850), pp. 356 ff.
2 Schaff's " History of the Christian Church," vol. vi., p. 709.
THE ANABAPTISTS.
309
a congregation of eleven hundred members, and had held
a general synod in 1527. They were not all Universalists,
but two of their principal leaders, Denk and Hetzer, are
known to have been such and to have been influential in
impressing their views on many. They were both men of
learning, and unitedly produced and published a transla-
tion of the Old Testament prophecies, several years before
Luther's translation appeared. Dorner says that “while
Denk maintained a universal restoration, Hetzer rejected
it." It is generally claimed that they were in agreement
in regard to destiny.
The Anabaptists have been charged with responsibility
for serious political disturbances involving loss of life, in
what is known as the Peasants' War, but it is now con-
ceded that the true rise of these insurrections ought not
to be attributed to religious opinions, from the fact that
many Romanists, and a still larger number of people who
had scarcely any religious principles, were active in them.
The people were groaning under severe oppressions and
sought to defend their civil liberties, and some of the
Anabaptists took advantage of rather than originated the
commotions. "The history of the Anabaptists," says Dr.
Schaff, "has yet to be written from an impartial, unsec-
tarian standpoint." 2
As the Anabaptists, however, did not manifest them-
selves in Switzerland until about 1523, and in Germany
some two years later, it seems evident that by the ex-
pression "among us here" Luther alludes to some of the
Reformers themselves as entertaining Universalist views.
Who they were we have no means of knowing. Justus
Jonas, "professor of church law and provost at Wittenberg,
and one of the most intimate friends and co-workers of
1 " History of Protestant Theology," vol. i., p. 191. Edinburgh, 1871.
Baptist Quarterly Review," 1889, p. 263.
2
((
Tatt
310
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
7
Luther," his assistant in the translation of the Bible, and
the author of "Annotations on the Acts of the Apos-
tles," is claimed by some as a believer in Universalism.
Dr. Bengel, in his "Gnomon," makes frequent use of the
"Annotations," and, commenting on Acts i. 7, says: "Jus-
tus Jonas writes: 'It is enough that you know from the
Scriptures that it is about to come to pass that all things
shall be restored; but when this is about to be, belongs
to God.'" Again, on "the restitution of all things," Acts.
iii. 21: "Justus Jonas says: 'Christ is that king who has
now received heaven, reigning in the meantime through
the gospel in the Spirit, until all things be restored, i.e.,
until the remainder of the Jews and Gentiles be converted.'
(Rom. xi.)" But aside from Luther's own declaration
we have no positive knowledge of who the believers may
have been, nor how numerous they were.
The work of Luther was soon known and warmly wel-
comed in England, and was antagonized as early as 1521
by the notorious Henry VIII., who wrote so vigorously
against it as to be rewarded by the pope with the title of
Defender of the Faith; but being opposed not long after
by the pope in his project of putting away his wife in
order that he might marry Anne Boleyn, he induced Par-
liament to sunder the connection between England and
Rome and recognize him as the head of the church. Thus
become a Protestant, he followed illustrious examples and
claimed for himself a monopoly in protesting against the
influence of the pope in his kingdom. The doctrines of
Rome he had no intention of changing. Heresies were
punished with death; and although the king had by proc-
lamation given the people permission to read the Bible, a
pak
1 " Gnomon " (Edinburgh, 1880), vol. ii., pp. 515, 545. J. Köstlin, in
the article "Apokatastasis "in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, says that
Bengel himself believed in Universalism, "but thought it dangerous to
teach."
PROTESTANT ENGLAND.
311
translation of which had been made under his authority,
its use was ere long forbidden by a counter-proclamation.
On the death of Henry a majority favorable to the Refor-
mation was obtained in the regency which ruled England
during the minority of Edward VI., at the head of which
was Archbishop Cranmer, who soon called eminent Re-
formers from Germany to aid him in carrying through all
that was involved in the Reformation there.
Heresies, so called, sprang up all over England; per-
secuted Protestants-persecuted alike by Reformers and
Romanists-flocked there from all lands; and among them
the Anabaptists, whose name probably at that time cov-
ered many differing sects, were numerous and zealous in
seeking converts in the new field. To stay the tide a
commission was established by the regency empowered to
search out, examine, and punish heretics, in doing which
they condemned some to die. As a further guard, and
to produce uniformity of faith throughout the kingdom,
especially among the clergy, forty-two articles of religion
were sent forth in 1552 under the authority of the king
The forty-second article reads: "They also deserve to
be condemned who endeavor to restore that pernicious
opinion that all men (though never so ungodly) shall at
last be saved; when for a certain time, appointed by the
Divine Justice, they have endured punishment for their
sins committed."
Within a year from the promulgation of these articles,
Mary, the daughter of Henry and Catharine, succeeded
Edward as monarch. She was a devoted Romanist, and
at once set herself to the undoing of the work of the Re-
formers, putting many to death and ordering the destruc-
tion of all Protestant books; but her own death thwarted
her purpose of an official restoration of the papal church.
Elizabeth, the daughter of Henry and Anne Boleyn, who
312
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
ť
{
succeeded Mary, resumed the work of her father, making
the English Reformation a triumph over Rome and also
over the Reformations of Germany and Switzerland. The
Confession of Faith was reduced to thirty-nine articles,
and in this form adopted by a convocation of the clergy
in 1562, and in 1571 was made by Parliament the rule of
faith for all the clergy. The forty-second article was
among those stricken out. Since that time Universalism
has not been regarded as heretical in the Church of Eng-
land, and some of its most eminent bishops and other
clergy have ably set it forth. Rev. Thomas Allin quotes.
the Bishop of Manchester as saying: "The forty-second
article was withdrawn because the church, knowing that
men like Origen, Clement, and Gregory of Nyssa were
Universalists, refused to dogmatize on such questions."1
Dr. Plumptre expresses his opinion that others than
the Anabaptists were aimed at by the forty-second article,
and says:
"It may be well to remember that there was
another class of thinkers who might be suspected of these
opinions. The last years of Erasmus had been given to
the publication of a Latin version of Origen, for whom
he professed a far deeper love and admiration than for·
Augustine, as 'having opened to him the springs and
methods of theological science.' It was published with a
Dedicatory Epistle from Grynæus to Erastus (the Swiss
physician whose name survives in Erastianism), entreat-
ing him to act as the champion and apologist of Origen
against the evil tongues that attacked his fame; and by
another from Beatus Rhenanus to Hermann, Archbishop
of Cologne. One of Erasmus's fellow-workers was an
Englishman, Laurence Humphrey (Humfridus), by whom
the three Dialogues against the Marcionites had been
translated into Latin. Looking to the freedom with which
1 "Universalism Asserted," p. 164.
313
topics outside the range of traditional orthodoxy had been
discussed in Sir Thomas More's ' Utopia,' it seems far from
improbable that his intercourse with Erasmus may have
touched on the wider hope associated with the name of
Origen. Anyhow, it will hardly be disputed that wher-
ever Origen was studied there was necessarily an opening
made for the reception of the views with which his name
was identified."
>>1
WILLIAM POSTELL.
William Postell, born in Normandy in 15 10 and died
near Paris in 1581, one of the remarkable scholars of his
time, was, as is conceded by both Protestants and Roman-
ists, a believer in and advocate of Universalism. Born
in the Latin communion, and for a time associated with
Loyola and the Jesuits, he became a Protestant in middle.
life, and spent a few years at the court of the Emperor
Ferdinand, until recalled to Paris by the king of France
and placed for a second time in the chair of Royal Pro-
fessor of Mathematics and Oriental Languages in the Uni-
versity. Subsequently he retired, whether voluntarily or
otherwise is in dispute, to a monastery, where, solaced by
books, writing some of his numerous works, and perhaps
teaching, he closed his life. He was somewhat eccentric
and visionary, but of upright life. On universal salvation
he expressed himself with great plainness of speech:
"It is necessary that death and hell, with all remaining
sins, should be so utterly abolished that not only shall we
not die or be condemned any more, but that we shall de-
rive an infinite advantage from the condemnation allowed
up to that time. For since in the freedom of his own will
God made one vessel to honor and another to dishonor, it
is necessary that each and every one should be restored
to liberty and to his former condition, that he who was in
the highest reproach and desperation may, after his res-
1 "The Spirits in Prison," New York, 1885, p. 190 f.
-
314
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
***
toration, be in so much the greater consolation, and in so
much the more vehement love, inasmuch as he is saved
from the greater loss and danger. For this purpose Christ
does not hold the keys of death and hell in vain, to the
end that both death and hell shall be deprived of the
whole human race, and Satan with his associates, who
without any infirmity became the author of sin, remain
alone, if you will, in obstinacy and bonds."
And again: "He to whom belong all souls, who hates
nothing that he has made, and will have all men to be
saved, and who is the Saviour of all, especially of them
that believe, will lighten every man that comes into the
world. But they who persuade themselves that there is to
be no restoration of all things here, are content to intro-
duce the greatest tyranny into the world, so that Satan
seems to have destroyed more than Christ can restore.
Oh the greatest impiety! Satan with no apparent means
has been ruining men to this very day, and Christ by his
secret and inward word, by his spirit and inspiration, or
even his faith infused by no outward word, cannot accom-
plish as much in saving as Satan does in destroying.'
"1
One of his "visionary "notions in later life was that a
union of all religions was possible. In this age such visions
are commended and encouraged.
Entering the seventeenth century, we find at its thresh-
old the famous mystic Jacob Boehm, whose writings Prot-
estant critics of the present age admit are now more
sought after than at any former time and have had a mod-
ifying effect on theology. A clear idea of his system as a
whole is difficult to grasp; but one of the prominent points
which it established is thus expressed: "When the fire shall
have destroyed sin and all the evil works of man, there
Say
G
1 Dr. Sawyer's translation of Petersen's Mystery of the Restoration of
All Things, "Universalist Quarterly," 1873, p. 23 f.
(
Y.
DR. JOHN DAVENANT.
DAVEN
315
shall be a universal reconciliation of all to God, who shall
be all in all, and everything shall end in good; perfection
shall rise out of imperfection."1
Antoinette Bourignon, a female mystic, born in 1616,
says: "All was harmony until sin entered. But on re-
pentance mankind shall be delivered from evil. . . . The
flood only destroyed sin, but none of God's works. The
same object shall be accomplished by fire. God and
the creature shall have but one mind. The whole world
shall become a paradise, and ever continue to be such."2
Rev. Dr. John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, England,
published in 1627 an "Exposition of the Epistle to the
Colossians," and commenting on the nineteenth and twen-
tieth verses of the first chapter, touching
the purpose
and promise of the reconciliation of all things, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven," interprets
them to mean all intelligences-as angels and men-
and also the whole fabric of the universe, which, created
for the use of man, became through his sin deranged and
subjected to vanity and disorder. "To whom," he asks,
"shall this whole system of the world owe its renovation
and restoration? Without doubt to Christ, the Son of
God, our Creator and Redeemer, who, by dying without
sin, deserves to be the restorer of all things which had
fallen and been affected by sin."
In 1632 appeared a work under the title "Offene Hertz
ens Pforte," i.e., "Open Gates of the Heart," purporting
to have been written by Angelus Marianus, which was
no doubt a fictitious name. It was dedicated to Axel
von Oxenstiern, Chancellor of Sweden. The author says:
"Through the everlasting gospel will all heathen, Jews,
•
CC
1 "Universalism: That is, God All in All; " translation of, in "Univer-
salist Quarterly," 1864, p. 254.
e Mbid., p. 254..
F
316
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
Turks, and even all who are not Christians, be converted
to Christ. 1. It is certain that all the world will be con-
verted to the Lord, . . . so that they shall all call upon
the name of the Lord, and serve him with one heart.
Then will the Lord appear in his glory, to renew and
beget again the whole creation; . . . and all things shall
be made new, and all old things pass away like a gar-
ment, and with salvation and righteousness all shall be
made ready for the marriage of the Lamb, in the paradise
of God."
Ket
In 1646 Thomas Edwards, a Presbyterian, published in
three parts, in London, a book entitled "Gangræna; or,
A Catalogue of the Errors and Heresies Vented in Eng-
land in these Four Last Years," etc. In the third part
he mentions the prevalence of the heresy "that all men
and even the devils shall be saved at last, and shall see,
feel, and possess blessedness to their everlasting salvation
and comfort."
In May, 1648, Parliament enacted a law against several
errors, chiefly various denials of the doctrine of the Trin- .
ity, the penalty for holding which was death; and several
others, and among them "That all men shall be saved,”
the penalty for maintaining which was imprisonment. How
long and to what extent this law was operative we have no
means of knowing. The Presbyterians, who were then in
power, who intensely hated the Independents, and against
whom this legislation was most directly aimed, were soon
succeeded by the latter, who repealed their laws. The
statute cited above was enacted on the 2d of May, and
on the 20th of the same month Gerard Winstanley pub-
lished "The Mystery of God," in which he says that the
gospel of Jesus Christ is this: "That mankind shall be by
him reconciled to his Maker, and be made one in spirit
with him-i.e., that the curse shall be removed, and the
317
.. that in the day of
power of it killed and consumed;
Christ every one shall be made of one heart and one spirit
-i.e., that all shall be brought in to acknowledge the
Father, to obey him, walk humbly before him, and live in
peace and love in him."
And again: "As yet the Son
hath not delivered up the kingdom to the Father, for he
must reign till all enemies be subdued, but death, curse,
and sorrow are not yet quite subdued, for it reigns over
part of the creation still, even over those poor creatures
that were lost, or that did not enter into the city, but
were cast into the lake of fire. The serpent as yet holds
a power, for there is part of God's work not yet delivered
from his bondage; and the serpent would be glad, and it
would be some ease to his torment, if any of God's works
might die and perish with him. . . . But the serpent only
shall perish, and God will not lose a hair that he made,
he will redeem the whole creation from death."
GERARD WINSTANLEY.
William Earbury (1652), appointed by Cromwell's com-
mittee minister in South Wales, was charged in the “Gan-
græna" with holding "many gross errors, one of which is
that of Universal Restoration." Another of his so-called
))
errors
was his belief that the atonement was not made
for the purpose of affecting God, but of changing men.
Richard Coppin, an English preacher, was the author
of several books, published between 1651 and 1659, in
defense of Universalism. He was the victim of many and
bitter persecutions for his opinions, but bore all bravely
and met his enemies with undaunted spirit. He preached
without compensation, giving without reserve whatever his
friends urged upon him to the poor and destitute.
In 1658 Samuel Richardson, a Baptist of London, pub-
lished a work entitled "The Doctrine of Eternal Hell Tor-
ments Overthrown." The book passed through numerous
editions, the last being the Boston, 1833. As a speci-
*(
318
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
men of the author's style we quote from chapter vi. of
the last edition: "The doctrine of hell torments lesseneth
the goodness of God, and limits it to a few, whereas the
Scripture declares it extends to all. (Rom. v., the whole
chapter.) The creature itself shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. (Rom. viii. 21.) The whole creation, and every
creature, angels and men, Jews and Gentiles (ver. 20, Mark
xvi. 15), in bondage to corruption, subject to vanity, idola-
try, and delusion of the devil, who know not, nor partake
of the glorious liberty of the sons of God, shall be deliv-
ered into the said liberty; for God was in Christ, reconcil-
ing the world to himself. (2 Cor. v. 19.) This is spoken
to persuade them to be reconciled to God, which shows it
to concern mankind. The Protestants in Poland under-
stand by every creature, angels and men; they say there
will come a time when the angels and the wickedest men
shall be free. Origen, one of the Fathers, held that all
should at last be saved, men and devils. The general-
ity of the Fathers held that all souls shall be purged by
the fire of the last judgment, and so pass to salvation.
(Moulin, p. 135. See Rom. xi. 22, 23, 27.) All flesh shall
see the salvation of God. (Luke iii. 6. See 1 Tim. ii. 3-6;
Isa. xlv. 17.) The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and
all flesh shall see it. (Isa. xl. 5.) The times of the resti-
tution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth
of his holy prophets since the world began. (Acts iii. 21.)
They shall in time be delivered from their bondage, for
which deliverance they groan. Are not all, angels and
men, obedient or disobedient, the creation of God? If
so, the worst shall partake of the liberty of the sons of
God."
J
Jeremy or Jeremiah White was preacher to the Council.
of State and chaplain in the court and. family of Oliver
JEREMY WHITE.
319
Cromwell. After the restoration of monarchy he retired
to private life. He was a fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge. He became a believer in Universalism after a
study of various systems of divinity, all of which seemed
to him inconsistent with the general trend of the Script-
ures in teaching that God is good and benevolent. He
wrote voluminously on the subject, but in his later years.
abridged what he had first composed, and prepared it for
publication. It was not given to the public, however, until
after his decease, and then without the author's name.
The title to the third edition was "The Restoration of
All Things; or, A Vindication of the Goodness and Grace
of God, to be Manifested at Last in the Recovery of His
Whole Creation out of the Fall. By Jeremy White, Chap-.
lain to Oliver Cromwell." This edition was published by
John Denis & Son, London, who had issued several books
on Universalism; and Mr. Denis, Sr., prefaced the work
with an account of several writers and their various works
on the same subject. An American edition appeared in
1844. Mr. White was a Trinitarian and a decided predes-
tinarian; and his Universalism was highly prized by him
chiefly because it enabled him to reconcile the decrees of
God with his infinite benevolence. He began his work in
devout supplication for divine wisdom, and closed it with
rapturous thanksgiving. These were the concluding words:
"We must believe thee to be infinitely good-to be good
without any measure or bound to be good beyond all
expression and conception of all creatures, of men and
angels: or we must give over thinking thee to be good at
all. All the goodness which is everywhere to be found
scattered among thy creatures is sent forth from thee, the
fountain, the sea of all goodness. Into this sea of all good-
ness I deliver myself and all my fellow-creatures. Thou
art love, and canst no more cease to be so, than to be
+
320
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
thyself. Take thy own methods with us, and submit us.
to them. Well may we so do, in an assurance that the
beginning, the way, and the end of them all is love.
"To the inexhaustible Fountain of all grace and good-
ness, from all his creatures, be ascribed all glory and praise
forever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah!"
In Holland, Peter Scrarius, a preacher at Amsterdam,
wrote and published in 1668 a book entitled "The Fourth
Book of Psalms, in which that grand mystery of the re-
demption of the whole human race, hitherto hidden from
the world, and restitution of all things, is graphically de-
scribed and proposed to all men promiscuously."
He
was also the author of another work, "Secret of Redemp-
tion," in which he regards Universalism as the message of
redemption "written for the generation to come," spoken
of in Psalm cii. 18-20, and to be manifested to the whole
world" when Jehovah shall look down from the heights
of his sanctity into the depths of the abyss, that he may
hear the groaning of the prisoner and loose those destined
to death,' or, as the original has it, the sons of death, i.e.,
that he may redeem even those who by the just judg-
ment of God are doomed not to life but to death, and
have received the sentence of death and not of life."1
Jane Lead, a well-known English mystic, became in the
latter part of her life a believer in, and through her writ-
ings an advocate of, Universalism. She claimed to have
had from about 1668 divine communications from the
world of spirits; but twenty-five years of such experi-
ences had elapsed before a clear revelation of the final
restoration of all souls was made to her. "For although
I had heard of such a doctrine," she says in her treatise
entitled "A Revelation of the Good News of the Ever-
1 Dr. Sawyer's translation of Petersen in "Christian Ambassador,"
May 28, 1853.
"
JANE LEAD.
321
lasting Gospel," published in 1693, "yet I paid no regard
to it, and would neither give faith nor assent to the notion
that eternal love should go out so immeasurably and finally
restore all fallen creatures, without exception, till a clear
vision opened it to me." Going to the Scriptures with a
glad heart in view of the new light that had dawned on
her, she was surprised to find that this great doctrine was
sustained by many clear proof-texts, which her ignorance
had heretofore hidden from her view. As examples of
these she refers to Romans v. 14-21, 1 Corinthians xv. 22,
I Timothy ii. 6, etc. She felt herself lost in what she calls
"the sweet harmony of love." The view of a reconciled
universe almost overpowered her, and she heard the voice
of Christ saying in her heart, "Fear not; but go forth and
vindicate the infinite love of God, thy Creator, and the
priceless worth and virtue of the blood of thy Saviour."
"Having now something clear and definite to say, and
something withal important and worthy to be said, she
found no difficulty in uttering her thoughts in a clear and
rather impressive manner. She states her views plainly,
and maintains them in a way creditable both to her head
and her heart. Though naturally and by habit averse to
all controversy, yet so profoundly had this subject moved
her that she felt it to be her duty to stand forth not only
to announce but also to defend a doctrine which was at
once so sublime and so cheering."
"Love and light," she said, " are without limit or end,
I confess; while death and darkness, the curse and punish-
ment, must necessarily and unavoidably come to a close.
For what has no beginning-as love, wisdom, and good-
ness—can have no end, and must remain through all eter-
nities, and all that contradicts them must be overwhelmed
and swallowed up and lost. Love overcomes all. . . . I
am persuaded that were this doctrine received and under-
010
S
ja
322
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
Ja
4
$
4
stood in its just and deepest grounds, it would certainly
overthrow the strongholds of sin, and in millions of souls
that are now lying in darkness and ignorance, it would
move to tears over their past life and to repentance not
to be repented of. Yea, when love shall penetrate them,
then will it so open their eyes that they must mourn and
lament that have lived so long only to despise the blood
of the covenant of grace and love, and to trample it under
their feet. In the spirit of prophecy I clearly see that
the time is coming when the trumpet of love shall so be
sounded that it shall gather such together from the four
winds of heaven and out of the dark corners of the earth,
that they may eat of the love-feast which is already pre-
pared; but not with unwashen hands shall they partake.
For a burning coal of love and life shall come from the
altar, and flying around shall touch and purify such souls
as have long been lying under the power of sin and death.
. . . For the day is breaking and the acceptable year
appears."1
"Dialogues on the General Restitution of the Creation "
was the title of an anonymous French book published in
Cologne in 1697. The author's argument seems to be
based on a comparison between the first and the second
Adam, and between the offense introduced by the first
and the grace introduced by the second. The latter
must not be less general or less effective than the former.
"The writer," says Petersen, " was an eminent personage.'
At some time in the seventeenth century prior to 1690,
which is the date of a Latin translation of the English,
there appeared a volume entitled "Philosophical Tracts,"
a posthumous work; the first tract in the collection being
from the pen of the Viscountess of Conway, a sister of
>>
1 Paper on Jane Lead, by Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer, in "Christian Ambas-
sador," June 30, 1860.
THE VISCOUNTESS OF CONWAY.
323
Heneage Finch, Chancellor of England, and a pupil of
"the learned and pious Dr. Henry More." She was, says
the biographer of Dr. More, " mistress of the highest the-
ories in philosophy and religion." Although an invalid
from her youth and subject to intolerable pains of body,
yet she mastered all the mental science of her day and
sought relief from pain in the most abstruse studies. She
was a clear and vigorous thinker and a terse writer. It
was a fundamental truth with her that the justice of God
must always be connected with his goodness, that there
can be no opposition between his attributes; goodness
without justice being weakness, and justice without good-
ness becoming revenge. In accord with this fundamental
position she says:
¡
S
"The common notion of the justice of God that every
sin, be it ever so little, is punished with infernal fire, and
that without end, begets in men a horrible idea of God,
as if he were rather a cruel tyrant than a kind Father to
all his creatures. But if the amiable representation of God
should become better known, as it exists in truth and as
it is manifested in all his dispensations to all his creatures,
and if our minds should in their inward sense and relish
recognize him as love and kindness itself, such as he in-
wardly reveals himself in the hearts of men through the
light and spirit of Jesus Christ our Lord, then, and not till
then, will men love God above all things, and acknowledge
him to be the most just as well as the most compassionate
and adorable of all beings, who is incapable of punishing
all sinners with equal punishment. And this punishment
must be equal, if an infinite duration of punishment in a
lake burning with fire and brimstone awaits sin, however
one may be punished more mildly and another more
severely."
In another passage she is, if possible, still more explicit
324
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
1
as to the purpose and effect of the divine justice and the
punishment it inflicts. "As all the punishments inflicted
by God upon his creatures have some proportion to their
sins, so all these, even the worst not excepted, tend to
their good and restoration, and thus resemble medicines
designed to cure the diseases of those creatures and restore
them to a better condition than any previously possessed."
Prefixed to the original English edition, and preserved
in Ward's "Life of Dr. Henry More," is an account of the
life of the countess and a warm commendation of her writ-
ings. "So sincere and pious a spirit breathing in them,"
as he expresses it, "it was thought by some to make them
public; it being hopeful that these broken fragments of so
entire and sincere a soul may prove the bread of life to as
many as have an unfeigned hunger after true holiness and
righteousness." Would it be unfair to infer from this
that Dr. More also entertained the views of his eminent
pupil ?
Dr. Thomas Burnet, "a clergyman of eminent genius,
learning, and virtue," says Macaulay, wrote, about the close
of the seventeenth century, although it was not published
until after his death, a treatise "On the State of the Dead,
in which he vigorously assailed the doctrine of the eternity
of punishment. That he might have the judgment of hist
friends on his work he caused a few copies to be printed.
Advised to keep the dissertation to himself and not let
his sentiments be known, the work was laid aside. One
of these privately printed copies being found in his study
after his decease, several more copies were printed for a
very few persons, as it was thought by his learned friends
a great pity that so elaborate a work should be entirely
lost. A pledge of secrecy was extorted from all who re-
ceived copies, and they were cautioned against allowing it
1 See "Universalist Quarterly," 1889, p. 288.
>>
DR. THOMAS BURNET.
325
to be copied or sent to the press. In some way, however,
the work came into the possession of a printer in Hol-
land, where a surreptitious edition was published; where-
upon Dr. Burnet's friend, in whose hands were the origi-
nal manuscripts, issued a corrected edition in 1727.
Having established the reasonableness of the expecta-
tion of a future life, he proceeds to set forth his view of
the last judgment, after which human souls would undergo
a purification by fire. This, he said, was the opinion of
Origen, but he adds: "We ought not to fancy, as some
imagine, that this opinion concerning this fiery purgation
and trial is peculiar to Origen, when it was common to
almost all the Fathers to the time when St. Austin lived."
He affirmed that at the time of Austin (A.D. 600) this
opinion of the Fathers had begun to decline, and was
finally corrupted into the purgatory of the Papal Church.
He aimed to restore the opinions of the Fathers on this
subject. The great question with regard to the continu-
ance of pain to the wicked was, in his judgment, the most
significant of any relating to a future life. "Whether,"
he says, "those punishments are to endure eternally, with-
out cessation, without relaxation, without end? . . . The
soul flies from the very thought and abhors the remem-
brance of everlasting misery; and several things have
occurred to me while I have been thinking on this sub-
ject, by which I am sensible that others have been per-
suaded, as well as myself, that God neither will nor can
endure the perpetual affliction and torment of his own
creatures; nor can nature itself endure it. Then we con-
ceive the God of the Christians to be the best and wisest
of Beings that he is neither cruel nor unjust to the race
of men; that there is nothing barbarous or dismal in his
worship; that he has neither instituted nor suffered any-
thing that is barbarous, anything that is inhuman; no
-
326
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
*
blood, or wounds, or tearing of the skin or flesh; nor
does he love, after the manner of Moloch, to embrace liv-
ing infants with his arms of fire. Besides, Jesus, the Head
and the Captain of the Christian dispensation, to whom the
Father has committed all judgment, is the greatest lover
of humankind; and suffered his own blood to be shed to
redeem us from evil and misery. This King and merciful
Father and this most righteous Judge govern entirely the
fates of humankind; and yet you assert that, according
to the sacred Scriptures, the greatest part of humankind
will be damned to eternal punishments, even by the most
merciful Father, by this most righteous Judge. . . . Con-
cerning the number of those who will be miserable in
another life I have nothing to say, not being able to know
anything of it; but that God should condemn his own
creatures to a state of eternal misery, and should retain
them in that state, seems to be repugnant both to divine
wisdom and goodness, and I may add, likewise to justice:
I say repugnant to wisdom; for a state like this, of ever-
lasting and unchangeable misery, would be in vain and of
no use, and therefore unwise and unworthy of God; for a
torment without cessation and without end can neither be
of service to God nor to man. Not to man most certainly,
if there is no room for repentance, and he who is tor-
mented can never grow better; if no intermission and
no ease is allowed, that the tormented may respire a little
and deliberate concerning the change of his state and his
mind. Let this punishment be severe, let it be bitter,
nay, let it be lasting, but let it at length have an end;
it can otherwise produce no fruit, no, not the least degree
of it; nor would it be possible for these miserable sinners
to repent and lead better lives, if amidst the pangs of their
bodies and their minds they should happen to be born
again. By what argument will you pretend to con-
patīka
A
327
vince me that the souls of the wicked are after death in-
curable? The Fathers seem not to have believed that,
who were of opinion that the last would be a purgative
fire. . . Nor does it seem just to limit the divine power
and wisdom and to oppress it with an evil, irresistible des-
tiny, or an incurable disease; for whatever this distemper"
of souls may be, if it can by any method or any medicine
be driven out, no remedy certainly is more powerful or
more effectual than fire or than fiery torments; this pain,
if any, will cause them to be touched with a sense of their
former crimes; and to grow weary of their present misery,
Besides, in that other life there will be no longer room for
the infidelity of the wicked: 'When they shall have seen
Christ coming in the clouds, surrounded with glory and
with his mighty angels, triumphing everywhere over his
enemies, and trampling them under his feet.' And then
that fomentation of evil which dwells in this body and this
flesh will, in that state, be extinguished and cease. There
will be no internal concupiscence, no external nourish-
ment of vice, nor any allurements to pleasure, to ambi-
tion, or avarice, or any incitements of the senses or pas-
sions to wickedness. For my part, I cannot perceive by
what argument, true or false, or by what impulse, internal
or external, they can be moved to adhere eternally to their
vices and impiety, unless they should be hardened by God
himself. . . . The man whom God created, liable to fall,
him, because he fell, God will not punish eternally; nor
will he deprive him to whom he has given the power, or
rather the impotence and the liberty of falling into vice,
of the power and liberty of relinquishing that vice. But
you will say, perhaps, that God does not deprive the wicked
of this power and liberty, but it proceeds from their own
will, that they persist in evil, immovable and inflexible. I
answer that according to your hypothesis God has created
•
DR. THOMAS BURNET.
TRAVE
328
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
them of such a nature that they cannot be otherwise than
inflexible and irrecoverable after they have once departed
this life and descended into their torments. Grant me but
this, that those miserable creatures are capable of repenting,
and we will not throw away all hope of their being received
into grace; but you deny that they can repent; I desire
that you would prove that their repentance is impossible.
If they continue to be reasonable creatures, indued with
understanding and will, they can repent; but if they are
deprived of reason and liberty, they can no longer sin."
Taking up the Greek word aionios and other words and
terms used in the Bible to denote the continuance of pun-
ishments, he shows that they are often used in a limited
sense, and very properly concludes: "Therefore, from the
use and force of the aforesaid words, nothing can cer-
tainly be determined concerning the eternity of infernal
punishments."
1.
The eighteenth century opened with spirited contests
between Universalists and their opponents. In the first
ten years John William Petersen published in Germany
three folio volumes of Universalist history and doctrine,
entitled "The Mystery of the Restoration of All Things."
When in his twenty-eighth year Petersen was appointed
professor of poetry at Rostock; afterward he was super-
intendent at Lübeck, then court preacher at Lutin, and in
1688 superintendent at Lüneburg. Cited before the Con-
sistory at Zelle, in 1692, for preaching Universalism, and
not being induced to renounce it, he was deprived of his
office and forced into private life. Retiring to Magdeburg,
he devoted the remainder of his life, which closed in 1727,
to religion and literature. Johanna Eleonora von Merlaw,
who became his wife in 1680, embraced Universalist views
and wrote in defense of them before her husband came
Edition of 1733, p. 163 f., pp. 342 ff.
Cat
1
329
into the full light of the truth. But when his mind was
fully satisfied in regard to it his great aim in all after-life
was its advocacy and defense. Besides the three volumes
before mentioned on "The Restoration of All Things," he
wrote and published other books and tracts in exposition
of his views and in answer to attacks on them. In the
second and third volumes of his great work he has also
replies to many who had attacked his faith.
"Many per-
sons," says Mosheim, "gave assent to these opinions, espe-
cially among the laity; but Petersen was also opposed by
great numbers; to whom he replied very fully, as he had
a fruitful genius and abundance of leisure." Mosheim
himself entered the lists, and in 1725, on the solicitation
of friends, gave a tract in "Defense of an Endless Hell."
Petersen replied to him in two publications, concerning
which Mosheim said: "I shall regard them as if they had
never been prepared. If he has so much confidence in
the correctness of his opinion, what is the use of sending
book after book upon it into the world?" A sharp word,
which must, if it had any force whatever, have been as
pertinent against Petersen's opposers.
PETERSEN—DITELMAIR.
Ditelmair, who wrote against Universalism in the middle
of the century, says: "How many and how deadly commo-
tions in the Church of Christ that very celebrated dogma
concerning the apokatastasis of all things, or the end of
infernal pains, which they would have to be understood by
this phrase, can, I think, escape no one who is not wholly
ignorant of affairs transacted in the religious world. For
not only in ancient times was it often disputed concerning
this subject, but also in the recent age there were num-
berless contests waged by the enemies of the infinite jus-
tice of God against the received opinions of the orthodox
church concerning eternal punishments; contests which
raged vehemently enough within the very bounds of the
Sy
330
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
orthodox church, in the end of the last century and the
beginning of the present.
})
Speaking of those who claimed Clemens Alexandrinus
and others of the Fathers as holding Universalist views,
Ditelmair says: "More than by the rest, this was done by
that most noted one in these controversies, John William
Petersen, a man otherwise not to be despised, second to
few in piety and erudition, but often indulging his own
fancy immoderately; from whom, though a hundred times
refuted, no one has yet tried to take away his historical
weapons." This Ditelmair now attempts to do, with what
success may be judged by the remark of Muenscher, in
his "Manual of Dogmatic History" (vol. ii., p. 506): “His
grounds are nearly all wholly untenable."
J
One of the most noteworthy treatises or tracts in Peter-
sen's great work was entitled "The Everlasting Gospel,"
purporting to be written by Paul Siegvolck, a name as-
sumed by George Klein-Nicolai, a German preacher, who,
on account of his advocacy of Universalism, was deposed as
pastor at Friessdorf. The title of the treatise was a favorite
one, especially with German advocates of our faith, in that
and the preceding century. It was of itself an avowal
that there are no limits to the work of Christ. Siegvolck's
work, appearing as it did at a time when much interest
was manifest in the question which it discussed, attained
great popularity and passed through at least five editions
before the close of the first half of the eighteenth century.
Several pens were kept busy in controverting it, and its
author continued to write replies and to publish additional
defenses of his faith until about 1730. Among his later
works was a reply to Mosheim's tract, before referred to.
John David Schaeffer was contemporary with Klein-
Nicolai. He was a preacher at Franken, and on account of
his publishing two works, one on the "Doctrine of the Mil-
GERMAN BELIEVERS.
331
lennial Reign of Christ," and the other entitled "The Ever-
lasting Gospel," gave up his office sooner than renounce his
views. Rev. Dr. Sawyer remarks that: "Nearly, perhaps
quite all those who at that time maintained the notion that
Christ was to reign on earth a thousand years, connected
the doctrine of universal salvation with it."
Another Universalist contemporary was Christopher
Schuetz, author of a work entitled "The Golden Rose."
Of these three persons we shall make further mention
when we come to speak of the first printed attack on
Universalism in America.
The German Baptists, commonly known as the "Dun-
kers," although they prefer to be called "The Brethren,"
originated in the village of Schwartzenau, in 1708, and
chose one of their original number (eight persons), Alex-
ander Mack, for their minister. They were believers in
Universalism. Of their subsequent removal to America
we shall speak in another place.
In 1726 John Henry Haug, professor at Strasburg, with
the assistance of Ernest Christoph Hochman, De Marsay,
John Conrad, [Christian] Dippel, and others, began the
publication of the "Berleburger Bibel," an entirely new
[German] translation and commentary of the Scriptures,
in which they taught and defended Universalism, from
the mystical standpoint. The work fills eight large folio.
volumes, and was completed in 1742. De Marsay was
born in France, and a volume of his "Discourses on Sub-
jects Relating to the Spiritual Life" was translated from
the French, and published in Edinburgh in 1749. The
English edition contains a sketch of his life and opinions.
Both the sketch and the discourses give proof of his belief
in Universalism.
In 1727 Ludwig Gerhard, professor of theology in the
University of Rostock, wrote and published “ A Complete
332
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
1
System of the Everlasting Gospel of the Restoration of
All Things; Together with the Unfounded Opposite Doc-
trine of Endless Damnation," etc. This also contained
an examination of Mosheim's tract, and excited much at-
tention and interest. It was a large and learned work.
Walch, in his." Introduction to the Religious Controver-
sies in the Lutheran Church," mentions no less than four-
teen volumes which it called forth in a short time.
Sad
In 1742 an anonymous work, entitled "Theosophic
Heart Devotions," was published. It is attributed to
Ernst August, Duke of Saxe-Weimar. The first part of
the volume is purely devotional; the second part consists
of various considerations upon the Divine Wisdom and
Goodness. The doctrine of Universalism is brought out
clearly.
In vol. xi. (year 1747) of the "Acta Historica-Ecclesi-
astica," published at Weimar, appeared the following:
(6
Recent History of the Doctrine of the Restoration of
All Things.
Jinak
"The doctrine of the restoration of the damned is mak-
ing of late here and there, and especially in the Elector-
ate of Brandenburg, no little commotion. There are men,
both clerical and lay, who engage in the controversy on
one side and the other. Among these is Provost and In-
spector Siegmund Baerensprung, at Neuangermunde, who,
as early as 1739, published under his own name a work of
368 pp. 8vo, under the title 'The Restoration of All Things
to Their Good Original State at the Creation, Exhibited
According to its Proof and Counter-proof.' In this work
the author took great pains to explain the Hebrew and
Greek words by which eternity is expressed, in such a
manner as to remove the principal objection to the res-
toration, and also to convince his readers that this doc-
trine is founded on the eternal priesthood of Christ; on
Ma
GERMAN WRITINGS.
333
the universal monarchy of his kingdom; on all the divine
attributes; yea, on both Scripture and reason, and thus
indeed that pardon is promised to Lucifer himself and the
whole host of wicked spirits.
"Next to him an old inspector at Wusterhausen by the
name of Woelner published a restorationist Catechism
under the following title: 'The Holy Doctrine of the Res-
toration of All Things, Briefly but Satisfactorily Exhibited
to the Simplest Capacity from the Word of God, in Ques-
tion and Answer.' The old man teaches the doctrine pub-
licly from the pulpit, and proves it, among other things,
by these words: 'He will lose his gray head-nay, he
will pledge his soul-if it is not true.' In his Catechism
he sets forth his opinion as gloriously as if he believed it
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for in-
struction in righteousness, and that it would awaken men
out of the sleep of security and incite them to true holi-
This indeed he expresses in a special hymn, which
he subjoins.
ness.
roir Those who would be particularly pious above others
teach and confess this doctrine to one another, and indus-
triously read 'Siegvolck's Everlasting Gospel,' which Restel
some time ago republished with some bad annotations;
insomuch that Whiston's prophecy in his 'Eternity of
Hell Torments,' that this doctrine would soon come to
be publicly preached, seems to be already fulfilled, as was
remarked in 1745, in the thirteenth number of the Altona
'Literary Times.' In the Berlin State and Literary Times'
of 1742, in the one hundred and fifty-first number, we
read the open-hearted confession: We cannot deny that
the doctrine of the restoration of the damned finds such
sound proofs in sound reason, in the Holy Scriptures, and
even in the justice and mercy of God himself, that no one
has yet, at least, been fully able to overthrow them.'" Then,
{
•
334
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
after quoting in full the title of "Restel's New Edition of
Siegvolck or Klein-Nicolai's Book," the writer adds:
"Before proceeding farther, we must mention that in
the very same year in which an attempt was made to
extend the doctrine of the restoration through the work
of Baerensprung, another man in the neighboring Pome-
rania set himself in opposition to it. For there was pub-
lished A Confession of the Love of God According to
the Truth, in the Doctrine of Endless Punishment, Drawn
up from his own Conviction, and Published for the Con-
firmation of Others, by Jacob Voss.' Stettin, 1739, 8vo,
152 pp. In this work the author labored to meet the friends
of the restoration on the ground of reason and Scripture.
""
Meanwhile there were not wanting advocates of the res-
toration after this. For when John Ernest Schubert, then
adjunct at Jena, and now superintendent at Stadthagen,
had published in quarto, at Jena, in 1741, his 'Rational
Thoughts on the Eternity of Hell Punishments,' we im-
mediately see 'The Universal Love and Grace of God, in
the Salvation of All Men, Interspersed with Remarks upon
Schubert's" Rational Thoughts on the Eternity of Hell
Punishments." By a Friend of the Truth.' Frankfort and
Leipzig, 1742, 8vo, pp. 368. The author remained anony-
mous, chose obscure methods in the publication of his
book, and employed such an obscure style that he who
would understand him finds no little trouble. But scarcely
was his work before the public, when Schubert brought
out anew his tract mentioned above, enlarged it by Script-
ure proofs, and made short work with his opposer. The
title is 'Rational and Scriptural Thoughts on the Eternity
of Hell Punishments, Together with a Vindication of Him-
self against an Anonymous Friend of the Restoration.'
4to, 592 pp.
"Last year there appeared against Mosheim a 'Script-
C
335
ural and Rational Consideration of the Proofs for and
against the Endless Misery of the Transgressors of God's
Law, and their Ultimate Restoration and Reëstablislı-
ment in Holiness; Occasioned by Mosheim's "Thoughts
on the Doctrine of the End of Hell Punishments," and
Set Forth with All Modesty, Out of Love for the Truth,
and the Deepest Reverence for the Infinite Merit of Christ.'
Frankfort and Leipzig, 1747, 8vo, 272 pp.
6
"This work was praised in the Berlin Times,' No. 131,
and still was found fault with, because the author does
not show how punishments can beget true virtue, since.
this must spring from love; and wishes to parley, as it
were, on the supposition of a year of jubilee, and to make
a thousand years out of every year or every day. After a
while it was discovered that Schlitte, the adjunct inspector
at Wusterhausen, was the author of this work, and that it
was published at the expense of a wealthy nobleman, who
is deeply interested in this doctrine. The author has here.
opposed particularly the appendix of Mosheim in the first
volume of his Sermons, and examined the letter which he
published in the second volume against Pagenkop. He
has also subjoined a peculiar appendix. For a French
work under the title, 'The System of the Theologians,
Ancient and Modern, Reconciled by the Exposition of
Different Opinions upon the State of Souls Separated
from the Body. In Fourteen Letters,' had been pub-
lished in London, first in 1731 and afterward in 1733 and
1739, 8vo.
In this work the author maintained the res-
toration of all things, and also the doctrine of a middle
state for souls after death. In a second part, Sequel to
the System,' etc., he vindicated his opinion against a work,
Examination of Origenism. By Professor R.' This work
Schlitte introduces and praises as one in which the restora-
tion is clearly proved, and he presents it as an evidence
(
GERMAN WRITINGS.
$
'
336
(CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
T
that this doctrine is revealed in the Scriptures and written
in every heart, and must be true, because two persons so
far removed from one another have been brought into it.
But notwithstanding this, he finds some very suspicious.
principles in it, which he points out, and to which he will
give no countenance.”
These are all the books in favor of Universalism men-
tioned; and the article concludes with a notice of opposing
works, and chiefly those sustaining the position of Mosheim.
The article is very instructive as showing the extent of
public interest in the discussion. Later in the century the
proofs multiply that Universalism had obtained a deeply
rooted place in the minds of German theologians. Michael
Hahn, John Augustine Eberhard, Samuel Mursinna, Jung
Stilling, Gottfried Steinhart, John Frederick Gruner, and
the renowned Schleiermacher contributed greatly to this
result.
Professor (afterward President) Sears announced in 1834,
as the result of his observation and inquiry in Germany,
that "the current hypothesis [there] is that in the middle.
state, intervening between death and the resurrection, the
righteous will gradually attain to perfection; and that to
all the wicked, whether men or angels, the gospel will be
preached, and that they will ultimately accept it and be
restored." And to-day Universalism is not regarded in
that country as a heresy, whether held by the Orthodox
or by Rationalists.
Universalism was carried to Holland at an early date
by the Anabaptists, and made part of the theology of the
Mennonites, who succeeded them. It was on the authority
of Stoschius, in his "History of the Eighteenth Century,"
maintained by Samuel Crellius, a preacher and author in
the first half of that period. 'I remember," says the his-
torian, that Crellius, whom I visited at Amsterdam in
<<
337
1742, and with whom I had much conversation on many
heads of the Christian doctrine, declared, with some emo-
tion, that he did not follow the opinions of Socinus, but
cordially believed in the doctrine of the satisfaction of
Christ, as it was taught by the Remonstrants, and was
persuaded that all men will be finally saved by Jesus
Christ, and delivered from the torments of hell."
TAUGHT IN HOLLAND.
At the present time Universalism is so far favorably
received in Holland as to be advocated in its periodicals.
R. Cremer, in a recent article on "The Dogma of Eternal
Punishment," after noticing the arguments in its favor, and
also those relating to the annihilation of the wicked, comes
to consider "what is to be regarded as the truth with
respect to this dogma," and concludes his paper thus:
As to the doctrine of the apokatastasis, of the restitu-
tion of all who are separated from God by sin, this doc-
trine is grounded in faith in God's unending love. If this
love is the leading thought of God's creation, the source
whence all has flowed, then by it also must the purpose
be determined for which all has been created. God's sov-
ereignty is no other than the sovereignty of his love. It
must one day rule as the absolute power. It is not to be
supposed that creatures can continue to hold aloof from it
and refuse to come under its sway. If God is unending
love, then he wills the salvation of all; if he is all-power-
ful love, then he works out the salvation of all. This can-
not be denied, whatever emphasis may be placed upon his
righteousness. God's love is a righteous love, which pun-
ishes sin because it cannot permit sin to exist.
And so
an expectation of a gradual and progressive growth and
development of all, without exception, is much more in
harmony with the actual condition of man, and conse-
quently much more reasonable than the thought of an
irrevocable decision as to man's lot at his departure from
C
+C
{
338
the earth. But with the expectation of the apokatastasis,
all punishment in the future is not thereby canceled, and
free play thus given for frivolity and indifference. The
truth of the apostolic saying retains its full force: What
a man sows that shall he also reap.' But that does not
infer that the punishment shall have no end to all eternity,
that there can never be the smallest place for change and
restitution. This comfortless thought cannot be cherished
as the truth. With man's nature, with the purpose of
punishment, above all, with the unbounded love of God,
which admits of no everlasting division between a king-
dom of light and a kingdom of darkness, the expectation
of an apokatastasis is alone in harmony-a final restitution
which shall be accomplished in the end of the ages.
"'1
In Switzerland Universalism found an able advocate in
the early part of the eighteenth century in Marie Huber.
She was a somewhat voluminous writer of original themes,
as well as a translator into French of publications in other
languages. Her book on "The State of Souls Separated
from their Bodies" is an argument for Universalism. It
first appeared in 1736.
Somewhere about 1760 Ferdinand Oliver Petitpierre, a
native of the Canton of Neufchâtel, was pastor at a village
in the same canton, and made himself obnoxious to his
church and to his brother-clergymen by preaching Uni-
versalism. The canton being at this time under the sov-
ereignty of the King of Prussia, Frederick the Great was
appealed to by the church to remove their pastor. Resist-
ance and delay on the part of the king brought on a con-
test in regard to ecclesiastical privilege, in which the church
and clergy were victorious, and the king, in submitting to
defeat, sarcastically informed them that "since they were
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
10
[CHAP. II.
6
K
>>
1 Translated from "Geloof en Vrijheid," 1893, 1st afl., in "The Thinker,'
New York, July, 1893, pp. 71 ff.
..
339
so resolutely bent on being eternally damned he should no
longer oppose their determination." Retiring to London,
Petitpierre engaged in business, and having in a few years
obtained what he thought would suffice for his necessities
the rest of his days, he was able to say: "I will now em-
ploy the happy leisure which God's goodness affords me
in the preparation of this work upon the plan of God, that
I may do my duty in this respect in the only way that is
now left me, and finish my career in this world as I began
it, maintaining the Word of the Lord." He contemplated
a treatise in four parts, on "The Plan of God toward Men,
as He has Manifested it in Nature and Grace." Only the
first part, "Thoughts on the Divine Goodness, Relative to
the Government of Moral Agents, Particularly Displayed in
Future Rewards and Punishments," was published. This
first appeared in French at Amsterdam in 1786. An Eng-
lish edition followed in 1788. Beginning in 1794, five
editions have been published in America.
In France, Pierre Cuppe, curate of Boin, published in
French at London, 1743, a book entitled "Heaven Open
to All Men; or, A Theological Treatise, in which, without
Disturbing the Practice of Religion, it is Solidly Proved by
Scripture and Reason that All Men shall be Saved." The
author was a priest of the Church of Rome, and notwith-
standing that church has for twelve centuries hurled its
anathemas against Universalism and its advocates, this
priest puts forth a clever work in defense of the salvation
of all souls. His concluding words are: "In fine, this
hypothesis yields a wonderful facility to explicate readily
an infinite number of places in the Holy Scriptures, and
ought to be one great consolation, by the hopes it enables
us to cherish that God will separate us from our old man,
in order to place us in his kingdom, where, without except-
1 Williams's "Tour in Switzerland," vol. ii., p. 148.
PETITPIERRE-CUPPE.
-
34.0
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
ing a single man, 'he shall,' as St. Paul says, 'be all in
all.
> >>
Protestantism, it is well known, had great difficulty in get-
ting a foothold in France. In 1559, at their first national
synod, held in Paris, they adopted a confession, a cate-
chism, and an order of worship, which had been prepared by
Calvin. Until 1598 the nation was in constant turmoil and
war, the parties being the Romanists and the Protestants,
or, as the latter were designated, the Huguenots. When
Henry IV. became king he deserted the Protestant party,
and from political motives openly professed the faith of
Rome. By the Edict of Nantes, which he issued in 1598,
he secured, however, to his former associates, then num-
bering more than seven hundred and fifty congregations.
throughout the kingdom, a legal existence, allowing them
to establish public worship, making them eligible to all
places of trust, giving them equal privileges in the schools
and universities, and allowing from the public funds forty
thousand crowns annually for the payment of their clergy.
Under this edict they flourished greatly, substantially
united on their Calvinistic basis, for nearly a century, or
until its revocation in 1685. No exercise of the Protestant
religion was now tolerated in France, and all its ministers
were commanded to leave the kingdom within a fortnight.
For more than a hundred years Protestants in France
had no civil rights. In 1787 Louis XVI., yielding to the
force of public opinion, published an Edict of Toleration,
authorizing the registry of Protestant births, marriages, and
deaths, and forbidding that they should in any way be dis-
turbed because of their faith; but declaring also that "the
Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion alone shall con-
tinue to enjoy public worship."
Toward the close of the French Revolution, when under
the consulship of Napoleon Christian worship was reës-
Trad
D
341
tablished, a law was enacted which, from the month of its
date, was called the Law of Germinal, securing full liberty
to the Protestants, regulating their ecclesiastical organiza-
tion, and providing for an annual endowment or appro-
priation for the support of their ministers. The Calvinistic
creed was ignored, the national synod was not preserved by
law, and consequently there was no official or authoritative
creed to be subscribed as the condition of being regarded
orthodox. A national synod was held, however, in 1872,
being the first to convene since 1659, at which, by a vote
of sixty-one against forty-five, a short confession was
adopted, and its subscription made obligatory on all young
pastors. The minority withdrew, and the Protestants of
France are not yet united on a credal basis.
For a considerable time Universalism has prevailed quite
extensively in France. The elder Coquerel, for nearly
forty years pastor of the Oratoire Church in Paris, and his
son, also a Protestant preacher, were its ardent advocates.
Many were in sympathy with them and they have many
successors, freedom of opinion being favorable to its pro-
mulgation. It is estimated that at least a third of the
Protestants in France are believers in Universalism.
FRANCE-SCOTLAND.
-
The first preacher of Universalism in Scotland was Rev.
James Purves, who took charge of a congregation in Edin-
burgh in 1771. Rev. Niel Douglass became a Universal-
ist in 1801, and began preaching his new faith in Greenock
and subsequently in Glasgow. William Worrall was his
assistant and on Mr. Douglass' death in 1823 became his
successor, being followed in 1828 by Mr. Edmunds. Mr.
Worrall also published a Universalist periodical. Societies
were also organized in Johnstone, Paisley, Ayr, and Fal-
kirk. T. Southwood Smith, M.D., was pastor of a Unita-
rian church at Yeovil from 1816 to 1820. He wrote a vol-
ume entitled "Illustrations of the Divine Government," first
·
J
342
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
1
published in Glasgow in 1816, and many times reprinted
in England and America; a very able defense of Uni-
versalism. He afterward became a physician in London,
and died at Florence, in 1861. The monument erected to
his memory sets forth that he was the pioneer of sanitary
improvements. Such of the early Universalist societies as
now survive bear the Unitarian name, Universalism being
in Europe a confessed doctrine in the Unitarian churches.
But two churches in Scotland now bear the Universalist
name, one at Glasgow and one at Larbert. The former is
a mission church, supported by the Universalist Woman's
Centenary Association of the United States.
Agitation and controversy on the subject of Universal-
ism were manifest in England very early in the eighteenth
century. In 1709 William Whiston, the translator of Jose-
phus, while professor of mathematics as successor to Sir
Isaac Newton, in Cambridge, wrote and published an essay
entitled "Reason and Philosophy no Enemies to Faith,"
in which he made war against the dogma of the endless
punishment of sinners. Ten years later he issued another
work on the same subject, and a much larger volume in
1740. While, however, he was not an annihilationist, his
views of destiny were more in the nature of a hope than
an assurance of Universalism. In his "Memoirs of Rev.
Dr. Samuel Clarke," Whiston says of his work in former
years against the proper eternity of the torments of
hell" "And I think I may venture to add, upon the
credit of what I discovered of the opinions of Sir Isaac
Newton and Dr. Clarke, they were both of the same senti-
ments. Nay, Dr. Clarke thought that 'few or no thinking
men were really of different sentiments in that matter.'
(C
Dr. George Cheyne, in his treatise entitled "Philosophi-
cal Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion," an edi-
tion of which was published in 1715, and perhaps earlier,
343
asserted his belief in Universalism. The First Cause, he
says, “infinitely powerful and perfect, must necessarily
subject, draw, and unite all intelligent beings to himself,
to make them as happy as their respective natures can
admit." He is the sole object of their happiness, and
they must be brought to him to enjoy it. "This happi-
ness is the very end of their creation, it being impossible
infinite perfection should make intelligent beings for any
less or any other end."
THE CHEVALIER RAMSAY.
Andrew Michael Ramsay, commonly called the Cheva-
lier, was a Roman Catholic Universalist. In the "Travels
of Cyrus," first published about 1720, passing in ten years
through four editions, he teaches that God "drew spirits
out of nothing to make them happy; and he punishes
them that they may return into order." In a later work,
bearing the same title as Dr. Cheyne's, just noticed, he fol-
lows, as to the question of destiny, substantially the line.
of argument advanced by Dr. Cheyne: "God's design in
creating finite intelligences could only be to make them
eternally happy, in the knowledge and love of his bound-
less perfections." "All reasonable agents act for an end.
This end must be either doing good to themselves or to
others. God's design in creating could not be to do good
to himself, and therefore it must be to do good to others."
Eternal Providence desires, wills, and employs continu-
ally all the means necessary to lead intelligent creatures.
to their ultimate and supreme happiness." "Almighty
power, wisdom, and love cannot be eternally frustrated
in his absolute and ultimate designs: therefore, God will
at last pardon and reëstablish in happiness all lapsed
beings."
"6
A volume entitled "The Imperial Standard of Messiah
Triumphant," etc., by R. Roach, B.D., appeared in 1722
or 1723.
The author believed in the immediate second
:
Al
344
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
coming of Christ. He was a mystic, and was familiar with
the writings of Petersen, Jane Lead, and others. With
most of the mystical school he was a believer in Univer-
salism, which he advocates boldly in this book and answers
fully the common objections urged against it. In a chap-
ter entitled "The General Act of Grace," he represents
Christ, now about to assume his kingdom, as saying:
C
"I have now, in the appointed time, given full commis-
sion to the Angel-Herald to proclaim the Everlasting Gos-
pel to all peoples, nations, tongues, and languages, reveal-
ing the unchangeable nature of God as pure and perfect
love, and manifesting his secret purpose and decree, re-
served as the peculiar glory of the latter day and dispen-
sation of grace in its full and utmost latitude: to wit, of
restoring at last the whole lapsed creation: the glad tid-
ings whereof are now sounded by the angel flying in the
midst of heaven, not only to the ends of the earth, but
even into the deep, to be heard by those of his own order
there; as also by all souls in their various regions of con-
finement and suffering. For I am love, and cannot bear
to see any of my creatures miserable to all eternity."
In 1738 not a little stir was made in the theological
world by the publication of a work bearing on our general
subject, from the pen of one of the most eminent of the
bishops of the Established Church, "The Divine Lega-
tion of Moses," by William Warburton, D.D., Bishop of
Gloucester. The argument of the work was this: "The
Deists said that the Jewish religion could lay no claim to
divinity because its sacred books said nothing respecting
a future state of rewards and punishments; but for that
very reason," Warburton replied, "must it be divined,
since it did really accomplish the punishment of wrong-
doers without such a doctrine, and no other legislation
had been able to do so without it." In answer to the
K
K
WARBURTON'S DIVINE LEGATION.
345
question, How could it do this? he replied: "Because the
foundation and support of the Mosaic legislation was the
theocracy which was peculiar to the Jews, and which dealt
out in this life righteous rewards and punishments upon
individual and nation. An extraordinary providence con-
ducted the affairs of this people, and consequently the
sending of Moses was divinely ordered."1 Taking up the
objection urged against his theory by some, that hell is
more often mentioned in the Old Testament than the
New, he makes a statement which sounds like an avowal
of belief in Universalism:
S
"I shall choose," he said, " rather to consider what is.
to be understood by the word, than how often it is used.
Now I suppose neither I nor my answerers can have any
reasonable objection to St. John's authority in this mat-
ter; who, speaking in the Book of Revelation of the use-
less old furniture of the Law, says, ' And death and hell
were cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death.'
(Rev. xx. 14.) From hence it appears that the hell of the
Old Testament was a very different thing from the hell of
the New, called the lake of fire; since the one is made the
punishment, or at least the extinction, of the other. And
to remove all doubt the apostle, we see, calls this casting
into the lake a second death, Must not then the lake
itself be a second hell? And if so, could the first, or the
Old Testament, hell be any other than the grave? The
next words tell us that whosoever was not found written
in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.' (Verse
15.) So that the sense of the whole seems to be this, that
at the consummation of things (the subject here treated
of), all physical and moral evil shall be abolished."2
In the good bishop's Commentary on Pope's "Essay
1 Christlieb's "Analysis" in Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, vol. iii., p. 480.
277 Works," London edition, 1811, vol. v., p. 407.
346
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
on Man," he finds many sentiments congenial to his own.
opinions :
44
Entering upon his argument, he (Pope) lays down this
self-evident proposition as the foundation of his thesis,
which he reasonably supposes will be allowed him: that
of all possibles systems, infinite wisdom hath formed the
best." "Though the system of the best supposes that
the evils themselves will be fully compensated by the
good they produce to the whole, yet this is so far from
supposing that particulars shall suffer for a general good,
that it is essential to this system to conclude that at the
completion of things, when the whole is arrived to the
state of utmost perfection, particular and universal good
shall coincide. To return then to the poet's argument,
he, as we said, bids man comfort himself with expectation
of future happiness, and shows him that this hope is an
earnest of it. But first of all he puts in one very neces-
sary caution,
1
Jalan
Hope humbly then, with trembling pinions soar.'
And provoked at those miscreants, whom he afterward
(Ep. iii., I. 262) describes as building 'hell on spite and
heaven on pride,' he upbraids them (1. 94 to 109) with
the example of the poor Indian, to whom also nature
hath given this common hope of mankind. But though
his untutored mind had betrayed him into many childish
fancies concerning the nature of that future state, yet he
is so far from excluding any part of his own species (a
vice which could proceed only from vain science, which
puffeth up) that he admits even his faithful dog to bear
him company."
In 1744 the" Harleian Miscellany," a collection of scarce,
I " Works," London edition, 1811, vol. xi., pp. 26, 29 f.
"
A
✔
7
347
curious, and entertaining pamphlets and tracts, as well
in manuscript as in print, found in the Earl of Oxford's
library after his decease, was published, making several
large quarto volumes. In vol. xi. is a tract entitled
"Natural and Revealed Religion Explaining Each Other,"
etc. The author is unknown, as is also the date of its
composition. It has been conjectured, from the position
it occupies among other tracts, that it was written not
later than 1694. Certainly it was not made public until
the volume containing it was printed in the year first
given. The second part, on "The State of Souls after
Death, as Discovered by Revelation," is an unambiguous
presentation of Universalism, as note the following para-
graph:
CC
"
HARLEIAN MISCELLANY.
Now, when Christ hath delivered up his kingdom to
his Father, then God is said to be all in all.' Now these
words could have no sense if hell torments were eternal.
God can never be all in all' but by restoring the order
of things. Indeed, these words are an irrefragable argu-
ment for the abolition of sin and hell, and the restora-
tion of all the creatures; which is further confirmed by
St. Paul's exclamation, 'O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory?' Now if death and the
grave have no other sting but sin, and this sting must be
destroyed, does it not follow that hell must be destroyed
also? Since 'tis certain if sin were killed in men there
would be no hell."
Rev. Dr. Samuel Parr, born in 1747, was an eminent
clergyman in the Church of England, and "in curious and
elegant classical knowledge seemed to have been at the
head of the English scholars of his day." From his biog-
rapher, Rev. William Field, we learn that "he believed
that on the part of the great Creator no disposition to be
reconciled to the truly penitent was wanting; that he was
348
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
S
placable in his own nature; and that it was the end of the
Christian scheme, and especially of the death of its great
Author, to reconcile men to God, to lead them to repent-
ance and reformation. With regard to the future life, he
believed that there were different degrees of future rewards
and punishments, proportioned to the merits or demerits
of every individual; and he agreed with Bishop Newton,
Dr. Hartley, and many others, that future punishments are
corrective; intended to produce moral reformation in the
sufferer, and to prepare, ultimately, for the gradual attain-
ment of greater or less degrees of happiness."1
Dr. Samuel Hartley, referred to in the foregoing quo-
tation, was a physician, "equally and in the first degree
eminent for skill, integrity, and charitable compassion.'
He published, in 1749, "Observations on Man, His Frame,
His Duty, and His Expectations." In it he devotes a
section to an argument for "The Final Happiness of all
Mankind in Some Distant Future State." This result he
shows to be probable, in seven significant arguments from
reason and by a mass of testimony in the Scriptures.
Rev. James Relly, born at Jefferson, North Wales, in
1720, was for a short time a preacher in Whitefield's com-
munion, but in 1750 he became a Universalist, and soon
organized a society of believers in London, to whom he
ministered until his death, about thirty years later. His
theology was peculiar, and will be described at length when
we come to notice his most famous disciple, the pioneer
of organized Universalism in America, Rev. John Murray.
He published nine small works, some of them being mere
tracts, in exposition and defense of his theology. It is
It
doubtful if his society ever owned a church edifice.
assembled in halls, and last in a leased chapel. After
Mr. Relly's death the society was ministered to by lay-
1 "Christian Examiner," vol. v., p. 463.
Ag
"}
REV. WILLIAM LAW.
349
men. This continued to be their custom until 1830, when,
the lease of their chapel having expired, they disbanded.
Rev. William Law, the renowned author of "A Serious
Call," "The Spirit of Love," and numerous doctrinal and
practical books, was a mystic, a great admirer of the writ-
ings of Jacob Boehm. His "Spirit of Love" was first
printed in 1752, and has passed through many editions.
Much of it is misty and difficult to understand, but in
places its Universalism is plainly avowed.
"To know," he says, "that Love alone was the begin-
ning of nature and creature, that nothing but Love en-
compasses the whole universe of things, that the governing
hand that overrules all, the watchful eye that sees through
all, is nothing but omnipotent and omniscient Love, using
an infinity of wisdom to raise all that is fallen in nature, to
save every misguided creature from the miserable works
of its own hands, and make happiness and glory the per-
petual inheritance of all the creation, is a reflection that
must be quite ravishing to every intelligent creature that
is sensible of it." It was Love alone that wanted to have
full satisfaction done to it, and such a Love as could not
be satisfied till all that glory and happiness that was lost
by the death of Adam was fully restored and regained
again by the death of Christ." "That supernatural Love
and Wisdom which brought it forth presides over it and
will direct it, till Christ, as a second Adam, has removed
and extinguished all that evil which the first Adam brought
into the human nature. He [Christ] has a power of
redeeming us which nothing can hinder; but sooner or later
he must see all his and our enemies under his feet, and all
that is fallen in Adam into death must rise and return into
a unity of an eternal life in God.”1 "In how many ways,
he says in a letter to a friend, "have I proved and asserted
1 London edition, 1754, part ii., pp. 11, 100, 119, 236.
350
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
that there neither is nor can be any wrath or partiality in
God; but that every creature must have all that happiness
which the infinite Love and power of God can help it to."
"It is my capital doctrine that God is all Love; that he
must eternally will that to the creature which he willed
at his creation." "As for the purification of all human
nature, I fully believe it, either in this world or some
after ages." 1
Thomas Newton, D.D., Bishop of Bristol in 1761, be-
lieved in Universalism on the ground of the freedom of
will and action extending into the future and the improb-
ability of a sinner's holding out forever against repenting.
The opinion that the future state of man is fixed and unal-
terable is, he says, "without any real foundation in Script-
ure, or in the nature and reason of things.. To suppose
that a man's happiness or misery to all eternity should be
absolutely and unchangeably fixed and determined by the
uncertain behavior of a few years in this life is a suppo-
sition even more unreasonable and unnatural than that a
man's mind and manners should be completely formed and
fashioned in his cradle, and that his whole future fortune
and condition should depend altogether on his infancy;
infancy being much greater in proportion to the few years
of this life than the whole of this life is to eternity." "No
creature can be so totally depraved and abandoned as to
hold out, under the most exquisite tortures, obstinate and
obdurate unto all eternity. Some may persist for a longer,
some for a shorter, term; but in the end all must be sub-
dued, so that their punishment may more properly be called
indefinite than infinite."2
✓
Japan
In 1761 Sir George Stonehouse published the first of
several works from his pen, in advocacy of Universalism.
1 "Collection of Letters," London, 1762, letter xii., pp. 172-175.
Works," London, 1782, "Last Dissertation,” vol. iii.
.>
SIR GEORGE STONEHOUSE.
35I
It was entitled "Universal Restitution a Scripture Doc-
trine," etc. The author was educated at Oxford, and
while there was a member of a society called, in deri-
sion, the "Holy Club." John and Charles Wesley, George
Whitefield, James Hervey, were also members. Between
the years 1729 and 1735 the doctrine of human destiny
was debated with great interest by them. Whitefield and
Hervey took the Calvinistic view; John and Charles Wes-
ley, the Arminian; others defended the Moravian senti-
ments; and Stonehouse stood alone in defense of universal
restitution. He demanded fair attention to his arguments,
and was told that if he would write out his thoughts they
should receive a candid answer. Probably this led to his
preparation of the work here mentioned, although some
years elapsed before he put it in print. Meeting John
Wesley after the book had been for some time before the
public, Mr. Stonehouse is reported to have said: “ Ah,
John, there are only you and I living out of us all." Το
which Wesley replied: "Better that you had died too,
George, before you had written your book." Stonehouse
responded: "I expected you had eaten my book at a
mouthful, John; but neither you, nor any of the rest,
though you all engaged to do it, have answered a single
paragraph of it."
"You must not think your book unan-
swerable on that account," said Wesley. "I am able to
answer it, but it would take up so much of my time that
I could not answer it to God." To Sir George this answer
seemed captious and evasive, and he was so stung by it
that he wrote and published "Universal Restitution Vin-
dicated." 1 Another volume on the same subject came
from his pen as late as 1773. His linguistic abilities were
remarkable, as he qualified himself, it is said, to translate
C
1 See pamphlet "Preëxistence of Souls and Universal Restitution Con-
sidered as Scripture Doctrines," Taunton, 1798.
•
352
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
readily any passage of Holy Writ into thirteen different
languages. His pages overflow with Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
Syriac, or Chaldee references and quotations, making them
difficult to read, and subjecting him to the charge of ped-
antry. Like Origen, Stonehouse held to the doctrine of
the preexistence of souls, and that they were sent into
this world, with Adam as their head, with a view to their
recovery from sins committed elsewhere. Those who here
accept Christ experience salvation. Those who go out of
this world neglecting salvation incur all the penalties of sin,
but, crying out from their prison-house and being peni-
tent, are forgiven and restored. Salvation belongs only
to the present life; restoration only to the future state of
existence.
In 1772 Capel Berrow, a clergyman of the Established
Church, published a volume entitled "Theological Disserta-
tions," in three of which he advocates Universalism. "It
shall be my business to prove," he said, from reason and
revelation, "that by the infinite mercy of God, and through
the merits of his Son, Jesus Christ, the whole creation will
be brought, at last, into a right knowledge of the Deity,
and an uniform obedience to his will and pleasure; and
that the souls of the reprobate will by degrees be so puri-
fied and reformed by some successive fiery trials reserved
for them in an after state, that all will, in the end, arrive
at that state and degree of happiness for which they were
at first created, and the Creator himself be freed from the
supposed necessity of sacrificing to his justice that more
amiable attribute of his nature, mercy.'
William Matthews, a Friend or Quaker, published in 1786
three volumes, entitled "Miscellaneous Companions," in
the third of which and in two volumes of the "Recorder,"
published a few years later, he advocated Universalism.
In the preface to the "Miscellaneous Companions" he
ر,
1
HENDERSON—WINCHESTER.
353
said: "I am now cheered with the rational, Scriptural,
and, as I think, glorious doctrine of the punishment of
divine justice being eventually subservient to an universal
purification and fitness for heavenly habitations." Sub-
mitting his "Dissertation on Everlasting Punishment" to
John Henderson, a famous linguist and scholar, the latter
appended to it a postscript, the conclusion of which is as
follows: "As, then, unceasing torments can answer no pos-
sible good to any one in the universe, I conclude them to
be neither the will nor the work of God.
Could I sup-
pose them, I must believe them to be inflicted by a wan-
tonness or cruelty which words cannot express nor heart
conceive. But let this be the comfort of every humble
soul, that known unto God are all his works-the Judge
of all shall do right, and he ordereth all things well. It
hath pleased him to reconcile all things to himself. There-
fore, to him shall every knee bow, and every tongue
shall say, 'In the Lord I have strength, and I have right-
eousness.'"'
Jag
Bedwa
In September, 1787, Rev. Elhanan Winchester-of whose
conversion to Universalism we shall speak in the American
portion of this work-arrived, from America, in London.
Almost unknown and unheralded, although he bore letters
of commendation, he began, under many difficulties, the
building up of a Universalist congregation. A series of
"Lectures on the Prophecies that Remain to be Fulfilled,"
extending through the years 1788-90, attracted attention,
and before their close his congregation so increased that
they found a comfortable home in the Chapel in Parlia-
ment Court. The influence exerted by means of his pub-
lications was, however, greater than that of his preaching.
In 1788 he printed his "Dialogues on Universal Restora-
tion," by far his most valuable production. Both the
"Monthly Review" and the "Critical Review" gave it
Jes
354
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
hearty commendation. Subsequently he published other
books and numerous tracts and pamphlets, and for two
years conducted a Universalist periodical, the “Philadel-
phian Magazine." In addition to all these labors he made
many excursions as an itinerant, preaching in many places
to large assemblies, but not attempting to establish soci-
eties, feeling that union rather than division was desirable.
His policy was a mistaken one, and for lack of organiza-
tion much of his work was ephemeral. His acquaintance
with dissenting ministers became extensive, and not a few
of them announced their conversion to the faith which he
preached.¹
In 1794 Mr. Winchester returned to America and was
succeeded at the Parliament Court Chapel by Rev. William
Vidler, who had been a Baptist preacher, but was con-
verted to Universalism by the reading of Mr. Winchester's
publications. In addition to his labors as a preacher Mr.
Vidler began in 1797 the publication of "The Universal-
ist's Miscellany," a periodical of which, with slight changes
of title, thirteen volumes were issued. He also assisted
Mr. Nathaniel Scarlett, a member of his congregation, in
preparing and publishing an improved translation of the
New Testament. The translation was principally made, it
is said, by Rev. Mr. Creighton, a clergyman of the Church
of England. Changing his views with regard to the Trin-
ity and vicarious atonement, Mr. Vidler thus caused a divi-
sion in his society, from which it never fully recovered.
On his death, in 1816, he was succeeded by Rev. William
J. Fox, an eminent Unitarian, at one time the most elo-
quent preacher in London; a philanthropist, and finally a
member of Parliament. The society is still in existence,
and, like all the Unitarian societies of England, holds to
the doctrine of Universalism.
1 See Stone's "Life of Winchester," chap. xii.
Get
THE "MONTHLY REVIEW.”
355
This notice of Universalist writers and preachers in the
eighteenth century might be very much extended by
numerous citations covering the whole period; but the
foregoing will suffice to show the activity of thinkers on
this important question, and the varied methods in which
the one result has been reached and the different theories
on which it was based. But with the mention of one
very significant circumstance--the manner in which Uni-
versalism was treated by the conductors of eminent liter-
ary reviews-we pass on to another period in its history.
In May, 1749, Mr. Ralph Griffiths, afterward Dr. Grif-
fiths, established in London the "Monthly Review," and
retained its chief direction more than fifty years, when, at
his death, it passed into the hands of his son and was under
his management until 1845, when it was discontinued.
It was exclusively a book review, and in its nearly two
hundred and fifty volumes may be found many scores of
notices of books in defense of, and also books antagonistic
to, Universalism. The favor of the reviewer is uniformly
manifest toward the former. His treatment of the latter is
as uniformly antagonistic, the positions being ably assailed
on grounds of Scripture, reason, and moral sense. There
is evidently great delight in noticing an argument in favor
of Universalism. A generally full analysis or summary
and copious extracts are frequently introduced, and there
can be no mistaking the hearty sympathy of the reviewer
with the doctrine and with arguments in its favor.
As a
specimen note the following from a notice of a Univer-
salist pamphlet, in 1754: The author "endeavors to show
that the notion of the endless duration of sinners in a state
of torment is not only unscriptural, but likewise highly
absurd, being contrary to all our best notions of the Deity,
as a Being of infinite justice and benignity. He observes,
too, and we think justly, that the repeated attempts of
J
Th
356
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
many pious and well-meaning persons to represent this
absurdity as a Scriptural doctrine has contributed not a
little to the growth of infidelity among the rational part
of mankind."
In noticing, in 1817, a volume of sermons favoring the
annihilation of the wicked, which the reviewer antagonized,
he is led to say of the doctrine of the eternity of future
punishment: "We have often expressed our notions of
that doctrine as derogatory to the goodness of the Deity,
and as tending to alienate many from the interests of
revealed truth; for who that seriously contemplates the
perfections of God and the infirmities of man can bring
himself to believe that the great and good Father of the
world would subject his frail and erring creatures to inter-
minable misery for the finite transgressions of a few fugi-
tive years? He who would wish to traduce the character
of the Divine Goodness could not do it with more effect
than by representing it as agreeable to that Goodness to
condemn any of his creatures to a state of endless woe."
The above are fair specimens of the criticisms which
characterized this popular and long-lived review during
the entire term of its publication.
Female
In 1756, seven years after the first issue of the "Monthly
Review," the "Critical Review" was started in opposition
to the former, under the direction of Tobias Smollett, M.D.,
the English historian. The one was regarded as the organ
of the High Church and the other as the organ of the Low
Church, and their antagonisms on several points were con-
stant and sharp. But the "Critical Review" was as favor-
able to Universalism and as hostile to the dogma of unend-
ing punishment as it seemed possible for the "Monthly
Review" to be. These were prominent features in its book
notices for nearly half a century. In a notice of [Stone-
house's]" Universal Restitution a Scripture Doctrine," etc.,
St
ing
¿
357
the reviewer begins his notice by saying: "The author
of the work before us has with great genius and learning
refuted the strongest objection that ever was made against
the truth of Christianity. The doctrine of the eternity of
hell torments is altogether irreconcilable with the idea of a
benevolent Creator." And he closes his review with this
encomium of the author and his work: "The learning and
accuracy with which the author has proved a point that
reflects the highest honor upon the Christian religion
merits the applause of those who are sincerely attached
to it; and we doubt not but his performance will from all
such meet with a favorable reception.'
""
The number, bulk, comprehensiveness, and ability of
the books in favor of Universalism which came under the
notice of these two Reviews, and the uniform attitude of
the reviewers in their favor, are an unmistakable indica-
tion of the prevalence of belief in the final salvation of all
souls, and of its acceptance by many intelligent and devout
persons.¹
1
THE "CRITICAL REVIEW.”
Coming into the nineteenth century, we are embarrassed
by the wealth of our material, and experience more diffi-
culty in determining what to omit than in selecting what
to present. Rev. Messrs. Richard Wright, John Prior Est-
lin, LL.D., Theophilus Lindsey, Thomas Belsham, Lant
Carpenter, LL.D., and Thomas Cogan, M.D., were promi-
nent among the defenders of Universalism in the Unitarian
ranks. Dr. Carpenter, in reply to Dr. William Magee's
work on the Atonement, takes occasion to say: "Most
of us (Unitarians) believe that a period will come to each
individual when punishment shall have done its work, when
the awful sufferings with which the gospel threatens the
K
1 To Charles W. Tomlinson, D.D., who has given much attention to these
Reviews, and noted many of their criticisms, the author is indebted for most
of what he has said of them.
1
358
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
6
impenitent and disobedient will have humbled the stubborn,
purified the polluted, and eradicated impiety, hypocrisy,
and every evil disposition, . . . and God shall be all in
all."
(C
Thomas Erskine, of Linlathen, a Scotch lawyer, was a
man of exalted Christian character, and a writer of more
than ordinary ability. Brought up in the Episcopal Church,
he had a hearty fellowship for Christians of every name.
Of him Principal Shairp said in the "Scotsman," a few
days after his decease: "The distinguishing characteristic
of Mr. Erskine, that which made him what he was, lay in
the intense and pure religious faith that possessed him.
This burned within him, a deep and central fire, absorbing
or rather transfiguring his fine natural gifts and attainments
-scholarship, refinement, humor, and powers of argument.
To his loving nature, that first truth of Christianity, that
God is love, had come home with a power and totality of
conviction which it is given few to feel." And he added:
Arising, perhaps, out of this tendency in Mr. Erskine to
be absorbed in one great truth, which he made to over-
bear all other truths that opposed it, was his belief in the
final restoration of all men. This seemed to him to be the
legitimate issue of the gospel. The conviction that it was
so grew on him latterly and he expressed it freely. He
used to dwell much on those passages in St. Paul's epistles
which seemed to him to favor this cherished belief of his.
·
No man that I ever knew had a deeper feeling of the
exceeding evil of sin, and of the divine necessity that sin
must always be misery. His Universalist views did not in
any way relax his profound sense of God's abhorrence of
sin." In the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia he is spoken
`of as having rebelled at the current Scotch theology, and
as having at length found a better way; that his views
were not "orthodox," and at first subjected him to con-
1
f
?
DR. CROMBIE.
359
siderable adverse criticism. "But," the writer adds, "they
gained favor; and he numbered among his intimate friends
some of the finest minds of the century-Thomas Carlyle,
Edward Irving, Frederick Denison Maurice, John McLeod
Campbell, Bishop Ewing, and Dean Stanley. Maurice and
Campbell were indebted to him for those conceptions of
the Atonement which have had so great an effect upon
later English and American popular religious thought; and
it was Campbell's public advocacy of them which led to
his expulsion from the Kirk. Mr. Erskine's theology was
part of his life, it permeated his being; and it was his
unfailing delight to impress his views upon all he met.
His sincerity, his earnestness, his pure and lofty charac-
ter, gave him a great influence." His publications, begin-
ning in 1820, continued until 1837. A posthumous work
appeared in 1871.
In 1829 Rev. Alexander Crombie, LL.D., pastor of a
Presbyterian church in London, published, in two volumes,
a work entitled "Natural Theology," etc. He is men-
tioned in Hagenbach's "History of Doctrines" as one of
"the recent representatives of Scotch theology," among
such men as John Brown, Dick, Dewar, Symington, McCrie,
Buchanan, Candlish, Cunningham, Eadie, Fairbain, and
others, who "unite adherence to the older confessions
with a liberal and earnest scholarship." At first he ex-
presses himself with regard to the destiny of the race in
a hopeful spirit:
"As it would be a contradiction to believe that the
counsels of Omnipotence can be defeated, we must con-
clude that this faculty (conscience), evidently intended for
our improvement in virtue and happiness, will not ulti-
mately fail of its effect; and that its salutary influence, its
pains and its pleasures, will be continued until the scheme
of Providence in the production of our system shall be per-
-
G
360
.
THE UNIVERSALISTSUNIV
[CHAP. II.
fected. The dissolution of the body can effect no instan-
taneous change in the habits of the soul. Whatever may
be the moral character at death, the same must accom-
pany us into another state. The sting of sin must bring
its punishment. But from the benevolence of the Divine
Being, we have every reason to hope that the sufferings
of the wicked will be remedial, that they will be propor-
tioned to their various degrees of guilt, and continued until
the purposes of the Divine Being shall be fully accom-
plished. The Christian, surely, should be delighted to in-
dulge this hope; and though there be one or two passages
in the New Testament which seem opposed to it, the gen-
eral tenor of the gospel appears favorable to this expecta-
tion. Reason forbids us to admit the Manichean doctrine
of two eternal principles, one good and the other evil; or
to believe that evil of any kind will be eternal.
Such a
notion would amount to a denial of the infinite perfections
and universal sovereignty of the Supreme Being. How
much more pleasing to our best affections is the thought
that the time will come when every creature in heaven,
in earth, under the earth and in the sea, and all that are
in them, will be found praising God."
Finally, having gone over the proofs of a future state,
Dr. Crombie thus announces his settled conviction:
www
htt
"These, then, are the grounds of my expectation of
another state of being, when we shall be delivered from
the imperfections and evils inseparable from mortality, and
fitted for a more intimate communion with our Maker;
when it will be our occupation and delight to contemplate
with improving faculties his stupendous works, and to
adore with reverence his transcendent perfections; when
we shall be reunited to those whom we loved on earth,
and join with them and every human being, of every nation.
and every language, whatever sufferings here or hereafter
REV. DAVID THOM.
361
some for their correction may previously undergo, in the
sublime offices of devotion to our Creator and Benefactor,
through the never-ending revolutions of eternity. Blessed
state, whence every malignant passion is excluded, and
where peace, harmony, and felicity forever dwell!"
Rev. David Thom, also a Scotch Presbyterian, deposed
from the Rodney Street Church in Liverpool, in 1825, for
heresies, in which, however, Universalism was not included,
but followed by a portion of his former congregation to
another portion of the city, where they duly organized,
became a believer in Universalism in 1829. Much the
greater number of his hearers stood with him." His the-
ology was eclectic and exceedingly unique, and he has
probably had no successor. Human nature, he held, was
not immortal and must be done away, swallowed up in the
divine nature of Jehovah-Jesus. As to its merely human
elements it must perish, but by Christ's union with it in
the flesh, everlasting life will be freely conferred on all
who have ever borne the image of the earthy. The gos-
pel considers mankind in two characters and two natures.
As connected with Adam, they are sinful subjects of pun-
ishment and must be destroyed; as connected with Christ,
they are justified and saved with an everlasting salvation.
For his knowledge of these views he claimed direct aid of
the Spirit of God, but believed that it was improbable that
many should be brought in this life to the understanding
of them. He preached his theology with great confidence
and zeal, and having no fellowship with American Univer-
salists, objected to any and all proofs of the restitution
of all things which were not based on his peculiar para-
doxes.
((
One of the most eminent names in Great Britain is that
of Sir James Edward Smith, for half a century at the head
of the botanists of that kingdom. "He found the science
ኃ
362
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
of botany," said the "Philosophical Magazine," "when he
approached it, locked up in a dead language: he set it
free by transfusing it into his own. He found it a severe
study, fitted only for the recluse: he left it of easy acqui-
sition to all. In the hands of his predecessors, with the
exception of his immortal master (Linnæus), it was dry,
technical, and scholastic: in his it was adorned with grace
and elegance, and might attract the poet as well as the
philosopher." In his "Memoirs and Correspondence,"
edited by Lady Smith, his widow, and published in 1832,
full proof is given of his belief in Universalism.
"He
was adverse," says Lady Smith, "to such a view of the
Supreme Being as is injurious to the perfect goodness of
his character, which, because his power is unlimited, has
supposed it might please him to exercise that power to
the subversion of his no less immutable attributes, justice.
and mercy.
Such views of our Creator appeared to him
dishonorable to that parental character which makes our
admiration spring from the heart and delight in obeying
his commands; such a view is to invest him in the evil
passions, the imperfection, and weakness of humanity. He
believes that God's justice has for its end the highest vir-
tue of the creation, and punishes for this end alone; and
thus it coincides with benevolence, for virtue and happi-
ness, though not the same, are inseparably conjoined. He
looked upon this world as a place of education, in which
God is training men, by mercies and sufferings, by means
and opportunities of various virtues, by trials of principle,
by the conflicts of reason and passion, by a discipline suited
to free moral beings for union with himself, and for sublime
and ever-growing virtue in heaven." "The subject of
the present memoir cherished a perfect faith in the good-
ness of God. The goodness of God was 'the reason of
the hope that was in him.' Believing that he framed the
▼
363
(
human soul for eternal duration and happiness, he never
troubled himself about the time or manner of his future,
existence, or what was to constitute it; considering him-
self incapable of forming any judgment, he relied on the
benevolence of that parental Being, who had vouchsafed
to call him hither to this great assembly and entertain-
ment, and had permitted him to contemplate his works, to
admire and adore his providence, and to comprehend the
wisdom of his conduct.' The apparent evil, the partiality,
the injustice, in our present life were to him assurances,
combined with revelation, of a more perfect state here-
after."
REV. JOHN FOSTER.
་
In 1841, only two years before his death, Rev. John
Foster, world-famed as a brilliant essayist, a cautious as
well as a profound thinker, avowed, in a letter to a young
clergyman, his disbelief in the doctrine of the eternity of
punishment. The existence of such a letter was not gen-
erally known until 1846, when his "Life and Correspond-
ence," edited by J. E. Ryland, was published; but as early
as 1796 he writes to his tutor and intimate friend, Rev.
Joseph Hughes: "My opinions have suffered some altera-
tions. I have discarded, for instance, the doctrine of eter-
nal punishment." His opinions in 1841 are not, therefore,
simply the opinions of his old age, but those which he
held for nearly half a century. In this letter of latest date
he acknowledged that he had read very little of what had
been written on the subject, nor had he cared to indulge
in criticism of incidental passages of Scripture. "It is the
moral argument, as it may be named, that presses irre-
sistibly on my mind-that which comes in the stupendous
idea of eternity. It appears to me that the teachers and
believers of the orthodox doctrine hardly ever make an
earnest, strenuous effort to form a conception of eternity;
or rather a conception somewhat of the nature of a faint,
364.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
(
incipient approximation." He concedes that sinners de-
serve punishment. "But endless punishment, hopeless
misery, through a duration to which the enormous terms.
above imagined will be absolutely nothing! I acknowl-
edge my inability (I would say it reverently) to admit this
belief, together with a belief in the divine goodness-the
belief that God is love,' that his tender mercies are over
all his works. Goodness, benevolence, charity, as ascribed
in supreme perfection to him, cannot mean a quality foreign
to all human conceptions of goodness; it must be some-
thing analogous in principle to what himself has defined
and required as goodness in his moral creatures, that, in
adoring the divine goodness, we may not be worshiping
an 'unknown God.' But if so, how would all our ideas
be confounded, while contemplating him bringing, of his
own sovereign will, a race of creatures into existence in
such a condition that they certainly will and must, must,
by their nature and circumstances, go wrong, and be mis-
erable unless prevented by special grace-which is the
privilege of only a small portion of them—and at the
same time affixing on their delinquency a doom of which
it is infinitely beyond the highest archangel's faculty to
apprehend a thousandth part of the horror."
To the argument that sin is an infinite evil and deserves,
therefore, an infinite penalty, he pertinently answers: "If
an evil act of a finite being may be of infinite demerit,
why may not a good one be of infinite excellence or merit
as having also a reference to the Infinite Being? Is it
not plain that every act of a finite nature must have in all
senses the finite quality of that nature-cannot, therefore,
be of infinite demerit?" Of the assertion that there will
be an endless continuance of sinning, with probably an
endless aggravation, and therefore the punishment must
be endless, he says: "Is not this like an admission of dis-
:
J
365
proportion between the punishment and the original cause
of its infliction? But suppose the case to be so-that is
to say, that the punishment is not a retribution simply for
the guilt of the momentary existence on earth, but a con-
tinued punishment of the continued, ever-aggravated guilt
in the eternal state-the allegation is of no avail in vindica-
tion of the doctrine; because the first consignment of the
dreadful state necessitates a continuance of the criminality;
the doctrine teaching that it is of the essence, and is an
awful aggravation, of the original consignment, that it
dooms the condemned to maintain the criminal spirit un-
changed forever. To doom to sin as well as to suffer,
and, according to the argument, to sin in order to suffer,
is inflicted as the punishment of the sin committed in the
mortal state. Virtually, therefore, the eternal punishment
is the punishment of the sins of time."
The Scriptures, he feels, ought to be appealed to, and
he is convinced that "on no allowable interpretation do
they signify less than a very protracted duration and for-
midable severity. But," he adds, "I hope it is not pre-
sumptuous to take advantage of the fact that the terms
'everlasting,''eternal,' ' forever,'' original,' or 'translated'
are often employed in the Bible, as well as other writings,
under great and various limitations of import; and are thus
withdrawn from the predicament of necessarily and abso-
lutely meaning a strictly endless duration. The limitation
is often, indeed, plainly marked by the nature of the sub-
ject. My resource in the present case, then, is simply
this: that since the terms do not necessarily and absolutely
signify an interminable duration, and since there is in the
present instance to be pleaded, for admitting a limited in-
terpretation, a reason in the moral estimate of things, of
stupendous, of infinite urgency, involving our conceptions
of the divine goodness and equity, and leaving those con-
N
REV. JOHN FOSTER.
T
366
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. II.
A
ceptions overwhelmed in darkness and horror if it be re-
jected, I therefore conclude that a limited interpretation is
authorized."
As to the belief of some in the "annihilation of exist-
ence, after a more or less protracted penal infliction," he
confesses that he has not given it much thought. "Even
this," he says, "would be a prodigious relief; but it is an
admission that the terms in question do mean something
final, in an absolute sense." It is not improbable to sup-
pose that he clearly saw to what alternative he was shut
up; but he made no confession of belief in Universalism,
he could only say: "One would wish to indulge the hope,
founded on the divine attribute of infinite benevolence, that
there will be a period somewhere in the endless futurity
when all God's sinning creatures will be restored by him
to rectitude and happiness." Assuring his correspondent.
that other ministers stand with him in disbelief in the
eternity of punishment, he puts in an apology for them
for not publicly avowing it by saying that, “For one
thing, a consideration of the unreasonable imputations
and unmeasured suspicions apt to be cast on any publicly
declared partial defection from rigid orthodoxy has made
them think they should better consult their usefulness by
not giving a prominence to this dissentient point; while
yet they make no concealment of it in private communi-
cations, and in answer to serious inquiries."
A year later than the date of this letter, writing to Rev.
Dr. Harris, Mr. Foster makes use of an expression touching
this "short term of mortal existence," that it is "absurdly
sometimes denominated a probation." That seems still
more closely to shut him up to Universalist views of the
future. But whatever may have been the conclusion in
which his own mind and heart rested, it is certain that
the publication of his strong moral argument against the
;
TOWNSHEND~MCDONALD.
eternity of punishment has led many into the acceptance
of Universalism.1
((
Rev. Chauncy Hare Townshend, of the Church of Eng-
land, published, in 1851, a volume of "Sermons in Son-
nets," many of which teach Universalism. We give the
first:
The times of restitution of all things.-ACTS iii. 21.
Give evil but an end-and all is clear!
Make it eternal-all things are obscured!
And all that we have thought, felt, wept, endured,
Worthless. We feel that ev'n if our own tear
Were wiped away forever, no true cheer
Could to our yearning bosoms be secured
While we believed that sorrow clung uncured
To any being we on earth held dear.
Oh, much doth life the sweet solution want
Of all made blest in far futurity!
367
Heaven needs it too. Our bosoms yearn and pant
Rather indeed our God to justify
Than our own selves. Oh, why then drop the key
That tunes discordant worlds to harmony?
Rev. George McDonald, formerly a Congregationalist,
now in the Episcopal Church, has been preaching Uni-
versalism, lo! these many years. In a volume entitled
Unspoken Sermons," published in London in 1867, he
distinctly avowed it as his faith concerning destiny. In
the sermon on "God a Consuming Fire" he represents
that it is a fire of love, operative so long as whatever is
opposed to it remains unconsumed. Sharp, severe, but
beneficent, it must subdue and bless all who need purifi-
cation: "But at length, O God, wilt thou not cast death
and hell into the lake of fire-even into thine own con-
suming self? Death shall then die everlastingly,
And hell itself will pass away,
And leave her dolorous mansions to the peering day.
1 "Life and Correspondence," Boston edition, 1850, vol. i., p. 27, vol. ii.,
pp. 263 ff., 290.
¡
368
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
}
Then, indeed, wilt thou be all in all. For then our poor
brothers and sisters, every one-O God, we trust in thee,
the consuming fire-shall have been burned clean and
brought home. For if their moans, myriads of ages away,
would turn heaven for us into hell-shall a man be more
merciful than God? Shall, of all his glories, his mercy
alone not be infinite? Shall a brother love a brother more
than the Father loves a son ?-more than the Brother Christ
loves his brother? Would he not die yet again to save
one brother more?"
In 1874 the Rev. R. W. Dale, of Birmingham, read a
paper before the Congregational Union of England, en-
titled "The Congregationalism of the Present-its Theol-
ogy and its Spiritual Work." Speaking of the manifest
drift" of the English Congregational mind in respect to
the doctrine of future punishment, the author expresses
his conviction that it is likely to react disastrously on the
whole structure of doctrines held by the church, unless
the question is discussed "with the utmost frankness, and
with a deep impression of its transcendent importance."
He says in this connection: "Now, to what extent there
has been a definite surrender on the part of Congrega-
tional ministers and churches of the old faith in the end-
lessness of future suffering I cannot tell. That there is any
general acceptance of the doctrine of universal restoration
I do not believe. I am inclined to think with many that
the doctrine of our forefathers has been silently relegated,
with or without very serious consideration, to that province
of the intellect which is the home of those beliefs which
we have not rejected, but which we are willing to forget.
I have some fear that the possibility of universal restora-
tion, while not consciously received, is exerting a consider-
able influence on the thought of very many of our people,
on our own thought, and on our own preaching." Pro-
S
G
ENGLISH CONGREGATIONALISTS.
369
+
ceeding then to announce his own departure from the old
standards, he avows his belief in the doctrine of the anni-
hilation of the wicked. This address, reported in the “Eng-
lish Independent," the same issue containing also an account
of the "Anniversary of the London Missionary Society,"
on which occasion Dr. Raleigh combated the notion that
the heathen dying without a knowledge of Christ went
their way to everlasting destruction-a declaration which
was received with great applause-furnished an occasion
for the late editor of the Boston "Congregationalist" to
say: "We have heard it affirmed by those who professed
to know, that this drift is especially true in regard to the
doctrine of the future punishment of the impenitent; some
even going so far as to affirm that there is but an incon-
siderable percentage of the London Congregational pas-
tors who would be willing to preach anything resembling
the old theology on that subject-or whose congregations
would consent to hear them if they did so. This has
always seemed to us to be a gross exaggeration, while we
have been well aware that the minds of some of the most
eminent Congregational pastors of London and its vicinity
have felt so sorely the perplexities surrounding the sub-
ject of the relation of the goodness of God to the doom
of the wicked, as to lead them to speak most cautiously,
if at all, with regard to it; and to feel that more light is
to be hoped for in further study of the Word in regard to
it. Good old Mr. Binney is reported to have said, on more
than one occasion, when pressed with these difficulties, that
'he hoped the infinitely good and infinitely fertile Intelli-
gence which presides over all may conceive of and adjust
some way in which the horrible catastrophe of the reme-
diless wickedness of any human soul may be consistently
averted.' 'As to this matter, we keep silence and wait,'
was substantially the testimony given two years since to
:
P
370
[CHAP. II.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
}
the writer by one of the famous preachers of England-
a man well known and much honored, as well, on this side
of the sea."
<<
In the twenty years which have elapsed since the above
was written there has been no abatement of interest in
religious circles abroad on this subject. In a recently
published work entitled "The Wider Hope," containing
Essays and Strictures on the Doctrine and Literature of
Future Punishment," is "A Bibliographical Appendix of
Recent Works on Eschatology as Contained in the Brit-
ish Museum." Of a total of one hundred and eighty vol-
umes, one hundred and four were published on the other
side of the water, eighty of them in London, and none at
an earlier date than 1877. Besides these, fifty-seven arti-
cles are noted as having recently appeared on the same
subject in British critical and theological magazines and
reviews. These facts indicate not only the prevalence of
Universalism abroad, but also great activity in its propaga-
tion and defense.
C
The presence of Universalism abroad would be still more
plainly manifest if, enlarging the field of our observation,
we should include a notice of its advocacy in polite litera-
ture, in song and in story. But although this is a large
and delightful field and most fruitful in results, we have
not entered it, preferring to call attention exclusively to
the opinions and position of theologians and Christian
philosophers and preachers. And we have also supposed
that our effort in this direction would be most satisfactory
and just, if, instead of giving what we might prepare as a
summary of their views, we should present them in their
own words, even at the risk of repetition in many cases
where similar phraseology had already been cited; or of
obscure and somewhat involved phrases in other instances;
or of quite lengthy quotations in a few cases. In calling
OLSHAUSEN.
371
attention, as we have frequently done, to the learning,
ability, and moral excellence of those whom we have
named and quoted as believers in and advocates of the
salvation of the world, we have, we are sure, confirmed
the declaration of Olshausen that Universalism "has no
doubt a deep root in noble minds-is the expression of a
heartfelt desire for a perfect harmony in the creation."1
1 Olshausen's Commentary, New York edition, 1857, vol. i., p. 460.
{
1
CHAPTER III.
IN AMERICA PRIOR TO OR INDEPENDENT OF JOHN
MURRAY.
AMONG those who were called heretics in the early New
England days, one of the most noted was Samuel Gorton,
who figures conspicuously in the history of the Massachu-
setts, Plymouth, and Rhode Island colonies.
He came
from England in the spring of 1636-37, and stopping but
a short time in Boston, went to Plymouth, where he met
with so little favor that he found it conducive to his com-
fort to obtain a home in Rhode Island. In a biographical
sketch appended to a modern edition of Gorton's "Simplic-
ity's Defence Against Seven-Headed Policy," Mr. Staples
warmly eulogizes him by saying that "nothing was ever
alleged against him, even by his most inveterate enemies."
On the contrary, Cotton Mather says that "he degener-
ated into a beast," and calls his opinions "blasphemous
and enormous."
Gorton thought that the Puritans and Pilgrims were, as
Coleridge says, too much concerned about "other world-
liness," leading them to undervalue the present state of
existence. He affirmed that the soul now exists in eter-
nity, and insisted that there is no heaven or hell save in the
mind; that the soul is independent of place, and the future
and the past are but eternal now. His whole religious
thought ran in a mystical vein, and he was belligerent
toward all differing views. He championed the Quakers
in their efforts for toleration, but fought against their the-
372
J
J
ad
373
ology; agreed with Roger Williams and the Baptists in
their theory of freedom of conscience, but was strong in
his opposition to their belief concerning ordinances, "beat-
ing down," as one of his followers expresses it, "all out-
ward ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, with
unanswerable demonstration." Occasionally he expounded
his views orally, but preaching was not his business. His
work was done with his pen. He delighted in titles based
on his mystical opinions, and in one of his conveyances of
land calls himself "Professor of the Mysteries of Christ."
He so delighted in hidden meanings and in allegory, and
had such fondness for far-fetched allusions and imagery,
that a degree of obscurity characterizes his sentences and
makes them the subject of speculation. But in several
passages, both of prose and of poetry, his belief in Uni-
versalism seems evident, as in the following, prefixed to
Simplicity's Defence":
(C
GORTON VANE.
P
The nations shall come forth at once, yea, at one birth;
Truth in the change of one reneweth all the earth;
Else were not perfect good in any one erect,
Nor sin were full, through th' fall, that great defect.
If change of one were not a world renewed,
What nation, then, not brought in and subdued,
When truth is published, though but unto one
Embraced, received? Oh, happy state of man,
All Gentiles brought in, who can want?
g
-
Sir Henry Vane, the younger, governor of Massachu-
setts in 1636, was also a mystic. Bishop Burnett says:
"Vahe's friends told me that he leaned to Origen's notion
of an universal salvation."1 Rev. Mr. Crouch, in a ser-
mon in defense of the "Eternity of Hell Torments," pub-
lished in England a century ago, says that "the doctrine
of Origen formed part of the unintelligible creed of Sir
1 "Life and Times," p. 103.
Jade
374
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. III.
Henry Vane." To what extent Vane sought to propa-
gate his religious opinions in Massachusetts is unknown.
Cotton Mather¹ says that the evidence is conflicting, but
cites a manuscript as saying that "before he was scarce
warm in his seat" as governor, "he began to broach new
tenets." In one of his latest works,2 Vane, speaking of
"the Incarnation and the fruits thereof," says:
J
"We see thereby the Devil and his Angels disappointed
in their wicked designs; who, by the bringing in of Sin,
were in hopes to have hindered the growing up of Jesus,
the Branch that was to spring out of this Root; but David's
Root, sitting as Lord at God's right hand, had before ob-
tained that power which was to subdue all enemies and
lay them flat at his footstool. David's offspring, therefore,
was in no danger of having his course stopped, or race
hindered, wherein, as a Mighty Saviour and Redeemer, he
was to go forth, and rescue the whole spiritual seed out
of the hands of Sin and Satan, to bring them into the true
Rest, and obtain a gracious reprieve and forbearance for
the most obstinate and rebellious also" (p. 91). Speaking
of Jesus as the second Adam, he says: "He did all that
was needful, and all that God required to be done, for the
remission of sin and the utter abolishing and removing it
out of man's nature with an absolute incapacity of ever
returning more upon the true and right heirs of salvation.
In respect whereof it is said, that as by one man's dis-
obedience many (that is, all) were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one many (that is, all) shall be made righteous
-having that ransom paid, and means provided in him to
make them righteous: so that there shall be no necessity
remaining upon any to perish, forasmuch as sufficient pro-
4
1 <<
Magnalia," book ii., chap. v.
2 "The Retired Man's Meditations; or, The Mystery of Godliness," Lon-
don, 1655, pp. 91, 95.
DR. DE BENNEVILLE.
375
vision is made to bring all men to repentance and to the
knowledge of the truth; that as in Adam all died, so in
this sense all, again, in Christ are made alive" (p. 95).
Dr. George de Benneville, of French parentage, but
born in London in 1703, settled in Pennsylvania in 1741.
He began to preach when quite young, both in England
and in France. In Normandy he found a few clergymen
whose names he has recorded, Durant, Chevrette, Dumou-
lin, L'Archar, who were willing to associate with him in
preaching to the people in woods and valleys, where great
crowds gathered to hear them. Some of their number were
arrested and put to death, some whipped and branded, and
some were sent to the galleys. At length Durant and De
Benneville were seized and condemned to die, the former
by hanging and the latter by the ax. Durant ascended.
the ladder, sung a psalm, and died joyfully. De Benne-
ville was on his knees praying for the forgiveness of his
enemies, when a courier arrived from the king with a re-
prieve. He was taken to Paris, and imprisoned and finally
liberated. Afterward he went to Germany and formed an
extensive acquaintance, among others, with De Marsay,
through whom he became intimate with Haug, Hoch-
man, Dippel, and others mentioned on a previous page,
as engaged in the translation and commentary known as
the "Berleburger Bibel." After preaching several years
in Germany he was taken sick, was supposed to have
died, and was placed in his coffin for burial. Reviving,
he claimed, as ever after he believed with great sincerity,
that he had been separated from his body while it lay in
the coffin, had been both to heaven and to hell, and had
been privileged with a view of what is to take place in
"the dispensation of the fullness of times-the restoration
of all souls." Restored to health and again attempting to
preach, he was again imprisoned, and on being set at lib-
376
[CHAP. III.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
W
erty came to America, feeling himself called on to preach
the gospel in the New World.
After his marriage, in 1745, he joined with his father-
in-law in the erection of a substantial mansion at Oley, a
large chamber in which was constructed especially for con-
venience as a schoolroom and a place of worship. Prior
to this he had occasionally preached in a Moravian school-
house about three miles north of the spot selected for his
residence. Some years after this he changed his residence
to Milestown, where he remained until his death, in 1793,
chiefly engaged in the practice of medicine, in which he
is said to have had great skill. Until prevented by old
age, it was his custom to journey twice a year through
the western portion of Pennsylvania and to Maryland and
Virginia, for the purpose of preaching. In 1790 he wrote
to his daughter: "In my old age, since I am eighty-eight
years old, my mind is still set to preach the gospel."
Having a strong aversion to the publication of anything
relating to himself, he destroyed many of his manuscripts.
Among the papers which remained was a manuscript Ger-
man translation of Marsay's Commentary on the Apoca-
lypse, which was published at Lebanon, Pa., in 1808.
Gall
Many of the early settlers in Germantown were from
Krisheim and Frankfort, Germany; the former were either
Mennonites or Quakers when they came; the latter were
German mystics. The mystics brought with them copies
of Klein-Nicolai's "Everlasting Gospel," Schütz's "Golden
Rose," and Schaeffer's "Everlasting Gospel," mentioned
in chapter ii. On the suggestion of Dr. De Benneville,
Klein-Nicolai's work, still attributed to Siegvolck, was
translated into English and quite extensively circulated.
in 1753. These books, both the German and the Eng-
lish, exerted no small influence, as is conceded by Rev.
N. Pomp, in his "Kurzgefaste Prüfungen der Lehre des
i
377
Ewigen Evangeliums" ("Examination of the Doctrine of
the Everlasting Gospel "), published in 1774. In it he
states that the doctrine of the restitution of all things
was never more widely spread than in the present cen-
tury; of which the numerous controversial writings, pro
and con, that have appeared in Europe within the last fifty
years, are sufficient proof. Yet nowhere has this doctrine
been more successful and made greater progress than here
in Pennsylvania. In Europe the industry of many learned
and godly men has thrown insuperable obstacles in its
way; but here the stream has been allowed free course,
and the fire has burned as it would. There were already
many copies of the Everlasting Gospel,' which, not being
privileged in Germany, were purchased at a cheap rate by
money-making people, and brought here; and they have
also been industriously scattered by the press. The charm-
ing title, 'The Everlasting Gospel,' induced many ignorant
people to buy the book, and the doctrine it inculcates in-
clined many to believe."
((
GERMANTOWN SETTLERS.
Four years before receiving from the king of England
the grant of lands in the New World, William Penn made.
a visit to Holland and Germany as a Quaker preacher.
The details of his trip were confided to his private diary,
but a copy of portions, if not the whole, came into the
hands of the Countess of Conway of whom we have
spoken in chapter ii.-and after her death the consent of
the author was obtained for its publication. At Frank-
fort he made the acquaintance of Johanna Eleonora von
Merlau, afterward the wife of Petersen (as see chapter ii.),
and at her residence held nearly all his meetings. Nine
years later, Miss Von Merlau, with nine others, formed an
association for the purchase of twenty-five thousand acres
of land in Pennsylvania and the encouragement of emi-
gration thereto. The sympathy of several of the company
-
378
[CHAP. III.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
with the views of Miss Von Merlau give a hint of the source
of the Universalist opinions of the emigrants who brought
with them the books before named.¹
The German Baptists, commonly called Dunkers, and
originating, as we have seen (chapter ii.), at Schwarzenau
in 1708, came in a body to America in 1719, and originally
settled in Pennsylvania. They were from the first believers
in universal restoration, but have, in the main, held it pri-
vately. In 1725 a division occurred in their ranks on the
Sabbath question, Conrad Beissel, the leader of the seces-
sion, insisting on the observance of the seventh day. Under
his lead they established a semi-monastic establishment at
Ephrata, Pa. Here, in 1740, they began a Sunday-school,
the earliest, probably, in America. Both branches of the
Dunkers published and preached universal restoration.
They objected to being called Universalists, but did not
hesitate to say that they believed in the restoration of all
souls. Later they became reticent in regard to destiny,
and as late as 1793 one of their number published a pam-
phlet in which he severely censures his brethren for not
giving the doctrine greater publicity, asserting that the
German Baptists all believe it."
(
Some of the early Moravians, settling here in 1735, were
believers in Universalism. Peter Bohler, their first pastor
at Bethlehem, Pa., and afterward made Bishop of America,
next in rank to Count Zinzendorf, their leader, was out-
spoken in its favor. Whitefield, in a letter to John Wesley
in 1740, remonstrating against the Arminian views of the
latter, warns him to beware lest he land at last with Peter
Bohler, who had "lately confessed in a letter that all the
damned souls would hereafter be brought out of hell.''
Israel Acrelius gives an account of his visit to Bethlehem
1 See "William Penn's Travels in Holland and Germany," by Professor
Seidensticker, in "The Pennsylvania Magazine," vol. ii., pp. 237 ff., 1878.
"
EPISCOPALIANS.
379
He made the
in 1754, and there finding Universalists.1
acquaintance of "Mr. Ritz," one of the preachers. This
man was a Dane, his name as written in that language
being Matthew Reuz, which he afterward anglicized into
Rights, but his contemporaries spelled it Wright. He was
a Universalist from his early youth. While residing at
Bethlehem he was sent out as a missionary to the Swedish
settlers on the Delaware, frequently preaching at Cohan-
sey, Penn's Neck, and Pile's Grove, N. J. To his efforts
it was largely due, no doubt, that Universalist churches
were organized in those localities as early as 1789, if not
earlier.
Universalism was also advocated in Episcopalian pulpits.
In 1759 it was preached and defended by Rev. Richard
Clarke, rector of St. Philip's Church, Charleston, S. C.
Ramsay, in his "History of South Carolina," speaks of
Clarke as "better known as a theologian beyond the
limits of America, than any other inhabitant of Carolina."
Dalcho ("Historical Account of the Protestant Episcopal
Church of South Carolina") says that Mr. Clarke
CC was a
Universalist, and appears to have been tinctured with the
doctrines of Jacob Boehmen." The most of his ministry
was in England, and at the time of his death the "Univer-
salist Theological Magazine," London, said: "For nearly
fifty years he maintained, both by preaching and writing,
the doctrine of universal restoration."
Rev. Robert Yancey, settled in Louisa County, Va.,
announced, not long before his death, and in anticipation
of it being cut off by consumption in 1774, while yet a
young man that he was convinced that the Bible taught
universal salvation, and that he would preach a discourse
in defense of it. Three editions of the sermon were pub-
lished.
1 "A History of New Sweden," Philadelphia edition, 1874, pp. 408 ft.
J
380
[CHAP. III.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
Rev. Jacob Duché, first chaplain to Congress, and rec-
tor of Christ Church and St. Peter's in Philadelphia, was
a personal friend of Rev. John Murray, and in a volume of
sermons, now scarce, speaks of the atonement, satisfaction,
and redemption of Christ as that "all-conquering meekness
which must finally extinguish all that is evil in the whole
system of things, and leave not one single enemy to God
and goodness unsubdued."
2
Rev. Dr. William Smith, principal and founder of the
University of Pennsylvania, and for many years president
of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church, was
also a personal friend of Murray's and an attendant on
his services when the latter preached in Philadelphia in
the summer of 1790.1 He was one of the most influential
churchmen in the reorganization of the Episcopal Church
after political independence was won. As chairman of the
committee to revise the Prayer-Book and adapt it to the
changed circumstances of the country, he had the principal
agency in its arrangement. Two passages in that book
are significant. The first, the omission of the Nicene and
the Athanasian Creeds, and the elimination of the clause in
the so-called Apostles' Creed expressing the belief in the
descent of Christ into hell. On the ground that this might
be construed into belief in the existence of a hell of tor-
ment and that Christ went down into that hell, they struck
it out. When this change was objected to by the English
bishops, whose good offices in the consecration of bishops
for the United States were desired, it was replaced, but on
condition that any church so desiring might substitute the
words, "he went into the place of departed spirits." The
English bishops also desired the restoration of the Nicene
1 Letters of Mrs. Murray in the author's possession.
2 "Annals of the American Pulpit," by William Sprague, D.D., vol. v.,
P. 160.
McClintock and Strong's Cyclopaedia, vol. viii., p. 674.
381
and the Athanasian Creeds. The former was inserted,
but the latter was refused a place.¹
A second innovation was in a significant change in the
seventeenth of the Thirty-nine Articles, concerning “Pre-
destination and Election." The original article begins:
"Predestination to life is the eternal purpose of God,
whereby (before the foundations of the world were laid)
he hath constantly decreed by his counsel, secret to us, to
deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath
chosen in Christ," etc. In place of this was inserted the
following: "Predestination to life, with respect to every
man's salvation, is the everlasting purpose of God," etc.
The original wording had been the occasion of many con-
troversies both in England and America, according as the
disputants discussed it as Calvinists or as Arminians. Dr.
Smith cut the knot by making the article an unambiguous
declaration of Universalism. Thus it stood until 1801,
when the convention, in session at Trenton, N. J., restored
the original.2
EPISCOPALIANS.
Sky
Rev. John Tyler, who became rector of Christ's Church
in Norwich, Conn., in 1769, and so remained until his death,
which occurred fifty-four years later, was an advocate of
Universalism, both with voice and pen. He preached
and published six sermons in its defense, the first edition
appearing anonymously in 1798. Five editions in all have
been published. He advocated it on Murray's Rellyan
theory. He came into these views as early as 1782. In
consequence of his making, as did Relly and Murray, a
distinction between salvation and redemption, he was often
misunderstood and was sometimes accused of denying the
sentiments taught in his book; but he retained his Uni-
versalist views until the close of life. Rev. Samuel Peters,
1 (
'Journal of the Convention," October 10, 11, 1786, p. 42.
2 Ibid., September 8-12, 1801, p. 206.
382
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. III.
"having heard that several of the Episcopal clergy in Con-
necticut, his much-esteemed friends and fellow-laborers in
the Lord, had joined with Mr. Tyler," printed "A Letter
to the Rev. John Tyler, A.M., Concerning the Possibility
of Eternal Punishments, and the Improbability of Univer-
sal Salvation," that his endangered brethren might also
have the advantage of it.
Universalist views also gained a foothold among the
Congregationalists. Dr. Charles Chauncy, ordained pas-
tor of the First Church, Boston, in 1727, became a believer
in Universalism several years before publicly avowing his
convictions, though he expressed himself freely to his
friends, and submitted to them his writings on the sub-
ject. Two defenses of the doctrine were published anony-
mously. Of one, Rev. Dr. John Clarke, his colleague, said
in a note to his sermon at the funeral of Dr. Chauncy, in
1787: "Of the numerous productions of Dr. Chauncy, the
most labored, and in his opinion the most valuable, is a
work entitled 'The Salvation of All Men,' published in
London, A.D. 1784. This was begun early in life, often
reviewed, and completed at a time when the mental powers
are most vigorous. Before its publication it underwent a
severe examination from those whose theological and criti-
cal knowledge qualified them to judge of such a work.
Many esteemed it a valuable acquisition to the religious
world. And all bestowed the highest encomiums upon
the learning and ingenuity of the author." As early as
1768, in a letter to Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles, he speaks of hav-
ing put the materials of the work together, and that "they
have laid by in a finished quarto volume for years. This
is written with too much freedom to admit of a publication
in this country. . . I question whether it will ever see
the light till after my death, and I am not yet determined
whether to permit its being printed, or to order its being
•
C
A
!
383
committed to the flames. It is a work that has cost me
much thought and a great deal of hard labor.”¹
In 1782 Dr. Chauncy published an anonymous pamphlet
in Boston, entitled "Salvation for All Men." It contains
little except extracts from the writings of English Univer-
salists, and was published, as its full title announces, to
make known what has been said in favor of the subject
by the "pious and learned men who have purposely writ
upon it.”
If this pamphlet was published with a view to
ascertaining how the larger work would be received, as
seems probable, the author soon found out, as it was
warmly attacked in responsive pamphlets by Rev. Messrs.
Joseph Eckley, Samuel Mather, Timothy Allen, Samuel
Hopkins, William Gordon, and Peter Thacher. The last
avows that he was impelled to his work by his "alarm at
the progress of the errors which he attempts to refute, and
at the patronage afforded them by some distinguished char-
acters in our theological world." Samuel Mather dwells
at great length on the significance of the New Testament
words "everlasting" and "forever," arguing that they
denote absolute endlessness. Rev. Dr. John Clarke made
a startling reply in a published "Letter to Dr. Mather."
"How could you," he wrote, "pretend to argue the end-
less punishment of the wicked from the application of the
Hebrew word gnolam, or the Greek aionios, when you have
repeatedly said in private conversation it could be inferred
from neither? A minister ought not to have one set of
opinions for the closet, and another for the public view.
What he asserts among his friends he ought to maintain
openly, or, at least, he ought not to contradict, while there
are any alive to detect his indiscretion. You have treated
an opponent very unfairly, to offer him arguments which
CONGREGATIONALISTS.
1 "Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society," first series, vol. x.,
p. 163, 1809.
384
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. III.
"
#
you know have no force in them, and which you have re-
jected in private conversation."
Rev. Jonathan Mayhew, probably more influential than
any other preacher in America' in producing the War for
Independence, and characterized by Bancroft as "the bold-
est and most fervid heart in New England," published two
Thanksgiving sermons, in 1762, in which he declares that
although there are "some things of a dark and gloomy
appearance in the world when considered by themselves,"
yet when we consider the purpose of Christ's mission, and
"that there is a certain restitution of all things, spoken by
the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began,
. . light and comfort rise out of darkness and sorrow."
Rev. Dr. Jeremy Belknap, pastor of the Federal Street
Congregational Church, Boston, and one of the founders
of the Massachusetts Historical Society, has left an avowal
of his belief in Universalism. His correspondence with
Ebenezer Hazard, of Philadelphia, has been published by
the Historical Society. In it Hazard acknowledges receipt
of a copy of Dr. Chauncy's pamphlet in 1782, inquires
who is the author, and adds: "If it is unscriptural, I am
too ignorant to be able to see it. I think, however, it
does honor to the mercy of the Deity, without doing in-
jury to divine justice." Dr. Belknap replies: "The design.
of emitting this piece was good, but I am not altogether
pleased with its execution, because it seems to be an at-
tempt to recommend the doctrine by the force of human
authority. . . . However, the truth of the case is this: the
doctrine of universal restitution has long been kept as a
secret among learned men. Murray has published some
undeniable truths concerning it, mixed with a jargon of
absurdity; and one Winchester among you has followed
his example. . As to the doctrine itself, of which you
desire my opinion, I frankly own to you that I have for
J
Ma
385
several years been growing in my acquaintance with it and
mý regard for it. I wished it might be true long before
I saw any just reason to conclude it was so.
But at
present I do not see how the doctrine can be disproved, if
the Scripture be allowed to speak for itself, and the expres-
sions therein used be understood in their natural sense,
without any systematical or synodical comments."
Of Rev. Dr. Joseph Huntington, pastor of the First
Church, Coventry, Conn., from 1763 until his death, 1794,
Dr. Sprague thus speaks at the close of a lengthy sketch
of his life and labors: "The most remarkable circumstance
in Dr. Huntington's history was not known until after his
death. Among his papers was found a manuscript volume
entitled 'Calvinism Improved,' which contains a vigorous
defense of the doctrine of universal salvation. This vol-
ume was afterward published, though it had but a limited.
circulation—much of the greater part of the edition hav-
ing been consigned to the flames by one of his daugh-
ters, a lady of rare excellence, who loved simple Calvinism
better than Calvinism Improved,' and whose regard for
orthodoxy seems to have been an overmatch even for her
filial reverence. The system inculcated in this volume.
is, however, very unlike that which now ordinarily passes
under the name of Universalism. It recognizes most of
the features of old-fashioned Calvinism, but maintains that
the atonement of Christ was commensurate, not only in its
nature, but in its design, with the sins of the whole human
family. Dr. Huntington had not been generally supposed
to hold any other than the commonly received orthodox
views on this subject, until this manuscript was found;
though some of his brethren afterward recollected to have
heard remarks from him, which, in the review, seemed of
a somewhat dubious character. It has been suggested that
the book might have been written as a mere trial of polemic
CONGREGATIONALISTS.
*
386
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. III.
skill; but the preface puts it beyond a doubt that it con-
tains his deliberate and matured convictions." ,1
Katal
Near the close of the century five Congregationalist
clergymen in four adjoining towns in western New Hamp-
shire-viz., Thomas Fessenden of Walpole, Jacob Mann
of Alstead, his successor, Samuel Mead, Dan Foster of
Charlestown, and Mr. Taft of Langdon-became believers
in Universalism, and, with the exception of Fessenden,
were dismissed for their heresy.
About the same time
Rev. Samuel Whiting, of Rockingham, Vt., on the opposite
side of the Connecticut River from Charlestown, became
a Universalist, and was dismissed for that reason.
"
To some extent Universalism also disturbed the Pres-
byterian churches. In 1783 the "First Presbytery of the
Eastward " published a volume against Dr. Chauncy's
pamphlet, entitled "Bath Kol: A Voice from the Wilder-
ness. Being an Humble Attempt to Support the Sinking
Truths of God against Some of the Principal Errors Rag-
ing at this Time." The preface sets forth that the "low
state of religion and the awful floods of error induced the
'First Presbytery of the Eastward,' in session at Windham
[Conn.], May 21, 1783, to appoint a committee to bring
in a draught of a testimony' against these evils; and they
were especially directed to begin with Origenism (or the
doctrine of universal salvation), as lying nearest the root
of all the impiety and wickedness now leading the fashion
in places of public resort." Of a total of 360 pages in
this volume, 222 are devoted to Universalism. Alluding
to John Murray as a zealous disciple of the Rellys, the
writer adds: "It is true that the Socinian form of this
opinion had stolen a passage into this country long before
the arrival of the itinerant last mentioned. Some church
records, within forty miles of Boston, can show that it was
1 Annals of the American Pulpit," vol. i., p. 604.
387
not first imported by him. And it is soundly asserted by
many that nothing but a stock of Dr. Burnet's honesty has
prevented its being fairly opened up to the world, under
the sanction of the name of another doctor, thirty years
ago. Whether the success of the traveler mentioned above
awakened a jealousy that the honor of so important a dis-
covery in theology should be carried off by an illiterate
stranger, or whether the great fertility of the present aera
in the invention of improvements in all departments of
learning and science stung the divines now on the stage
to emulation, we list not to inquire. One thing is become
certain, that no sooner did the author of a pamphlet called
'Salvation for All Men' give the word, than great was the
multitude of the preachers that suddenly rose up in almost
every quarter, and published it. And, if the best accounts
we can obtain deserve credit, this doctrine rings from so
many pulpits through the land already, that every minister
of the gospel who does not wish it to become universally
taught and received is now called on, as he tenders the
cause of God and the best interests of souls, to stand forth
and openly disavow it."
In 1787 the Synod of New York and Philadelphia rec-
ommended to all their Presbyteries and members to be
watchful and to guard against the introduction of Univer-
salism among their people. In 1792 the General Assembly
decided, on a question raised by the Synod of the Carolinas,
that Universalists be not admitted to the sealing ordinances
of the gospel; and on an attempt to reopen the question.
in 1794, "unanimously agreed to adhere to its aforesaid
decision."
PRESBYTERIANS.
CHAPTER IV.
JOHN MURRAY.
J
ORGANIZED Universalism, the creation and establish-
ment of the Universalist Church, had its chief, but not ex-
clusive, incitement in the ministry of Rev. John Murray,
who, born in Alton, England, December 10 (O. S.), 1741,
landed in America in the latter part of September, 1770.
Although then a young man, he had passed through try-
ing experiences, and had come to the New World hoping
to lose himself in its wilds and pass the remainder of his
days in obscurity. His father was an Episcopalian and
his mother a Presbyterian, and both high Calvinists. His
early home-life was clouded by great religious severity;
his father, he says, "seldom indulging in a smile," and
teaching him "that for any individual, not the elect of
God, to say of God, or to God, 'Our Father,' was noth-
ing better than blasphemy." All his early surroundings
impressed him with "a terror of religion." The coming
of the Methodists into his neighborhood gave him new
hope, and as he listened to their fervid preaching he began
to find delight in religious themes and exercises. John
Wesley gave him marked notice by appointing him "class-
leader of forty boys," and soon after this he began to
preach. He found himself, however, sorely haunted by
the Calvinism which his parents championed; and shortly
after his father's death, having opportunity to listen to the
preaching of Whitefield, his early opinions were reinforced
by what he regarded as the preacher's demonstrations of
388
M
d.
Gal
1
¦
389
their truth. He was at this time residing with his mother
in Ireland. Soon after becoming a preacher in Wesley's
connection, and while perplexed with the questions of pre-
destination and freewill, he went to London, where, for a
while, he led a gay, but not immoral, life; but soon con-
necting himself with Whitefield's society, he became zeal-
ously interested in all that tended to its advancement.
Before long he was asked to interview and reclaim
to the Whitefield congregation a young woman who had
avowed herself a Universalist, and to read and criticise a
refutation which a brother clergyman had written, of a
book put forth by Rev. James Relly, who, from being a
preacher in Whitefield's connection, had become a preacher
of Universalism. He confesses himself baffled and vexed
by the young woman's observations; is impressed with the
want of candor of the reviewer of the book, and is greatly
distressed that no better showing against Mr. Relly's argu-
ments is made. Not many days pass before the book itself
falls into his hands. Its arguments stagger him, and he
desires to hear its author preach. The privilege is soon
granted, and from the meeting he goes to his closet and
begins anew the study of the Holy Scriptures. The doc-
trine of election becomes more and more clear and satis-
fying to him, but the doctrine of reprobation seems to
be wholly without foundation. Cited to appear before
Mr. Whitefield's society, he is tried and excommunicated.
Former friends become persecutors, death robs him of his
wife, and, well-nigh broken-hearted, he comes to the New
World, determined, he says, "to close my life in solitude,
in the most complete retirement.'
His experiences on landing on the shore of New Jersey,
by reason of accident to the ship which brought him over;
his interview with Thomas Porter, who declared that he
knew as soon as he saw the ship that it had on board the
JOHN MURRAY.
40
-
390
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
•
ņ
preacher for whom he had built a house of worship and
for whose coming he had long been waiting; and his final
consent to preach-border on the marvelous, but are well
authenticated.¹ From the date of this first sermon in
America, September 30, 1770, until he was made help-
less by paralysis in October, 1809-although he remained
on earth until September, 1815-he gave himself wholly
to the ministry, making his home for the most part with
Thomas Porter, at Good Luck, N. J., and itinerating from
New Hampshire to Virginia, until December, 1774, when
he settled in Gloucester, Mass., drawn there by the fact
that several of its residents had, by reading the book of
Relly's which first drew his attention to enlarged views of
the divine economy, become Universalists. His mission
in this land, up to that time, had not been a constructive
The thought of creating a sect, or even of organiz-
ing a society or church of believers in Christianity as he
interpreted it, had probably never entered his mind.
one.
It is notorious that in many places where he preached
the legitimate inferences from the premises in his discourses.
were not fully apprehended either by the preachers or peo-
ple who flocked to hear him. No doubt he was honest
and sincere in adopting this course, since he justified it in
after years, and on the occasion of his visit to England, in
1788, repeated it there; but it involved him in many diffi-
culties, created suspicion, and in some instances great in-
dignation. This was true in Providence, Newport, Boston,
and during the first of his preaching in Gloucester. In
Portsmouth, N. H., he was invited to settle over an estab-
lished church and congregation, under the impression that
he was a Calvinist. In Newburyport his patrons, on his
C
1 For this and all facts cited in the career of Murray (not noted as obtained
elsewhere), see "Life of Rev. John Murray" (written by himself to 1774,
and continued by his wife to his death), Boston edition, 1869.
JOHN MURRAY.
391
first visit, were the personal friends and adherents of Rev.
George Whitefield, who had died in that town the day
Mr. Murray preached his first sermon in America; and as
Mr. Murray is said to have borne a strong resemblance to
that popular divine, in the animation of his style and the
fresh and copious power of his illustrations, it is proba-
ble that they regarded him as in some sort a successor
to Whitefield. Certainly they did not understand that
he was a Universalist, for, concerning his second visit to
Newburyport and Portsmouth, Mrs. Murray has written:
"Those who adhered to him in those towns, having ascer-
tained that he absolutely believed in the final restitution
of all things, united with the many in the most unquali-
fied censure.'
"}
His own statement of this, to say the least, disastrous
procedure and his justification or approval of it, he thus
records: "The grace, union, and membership, upon which
I expatiated, were admitted by every Calvinist, but ad-
mitted only for the elect; and when I repeated those glo-
rious texts of Scripture which indisputably proclaim the
redemption of the lost world, as I did not expressly say,
'My brethren, I receive these texts in the unlimited sense.
in which they are given,' they were not apprised that I did.
not read them with the same contracted views to which
they had been accustomed. When they became assured
of the magnitude and unbounded result which I ascribed
to the birth, life, and death of the Redeemer, their doors.
were fast closed against me. For myself, I was in unison
with Mr. Relly, who supposed that the gradual dawn of
light would eventually prove more beneficial to mankind
than the sudden burst of meridian day. Thus I was
contented with proclaiming the truth as it is in Jesus in
Scripture language only-leaving to my hearers deduc-
tions, comments, and applications."
i
/
392
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
V
From the time of making his residence in Gloucester,
with the exception, already noted, of his visit to England,
Mr. Murray adopted a different policy. He became posi-
tive and aggressive, in earnest, and zealous for the preva-
lence of the theology which he regarded as the true in-
terpretation of the gospel. That theology may be thus
briefly described: It was trinitarian in its idea of God, and
of Christ's nature and relation to God. It was Calvinistic
in its theory of the sin of Adam as putting all souls out
of harmony with God; in its doctrine of vicarious atone-
ment; in the justice of eternal suffering for all men, and
that Christ had borne that suffering in the place of all who
should ever be saved. It differed from Calvinism in its
theory of the entire human race in its relations to Christ,
predicating of all souls what Calvinism predicated of the
elect only, their indissoluble union with Christ. Relly,
whose disciple Mr. Murray was, had, as a Calvinist, worked
out a theory which seemed to him to be a satisfactory
reason why a transfer of human sin and penalty to Christ
could be consistent with the divine law that the sinner
and not the innocent should suffer punishment. This
theory was that there is such a real and thorough union of
Christ with the human race as made their acts his and his
theirs. All men, he held, were really in Adam, and sinned
in him, not by a fictitious imputation, but by actual par-
ticipation; equally so are all men in the second Adam, "the
head of every man," and he is as justly accountable for
what they do as is the head in the natural body account-
able for the deeds of all the members united to that head.
#
Accordingly Christ, in his corporate capacity, was truly
guilty of the offense of the human race, and could be,
as he actually was, justly punished for it; and the race,
because of this union, really suffered in him all the penalty
which he endured, and thus fully satisfied justice. There
393
is no more punishment, therefore, due for sin, nor any fur-
ther occasion for declaring the demands of the law, except
to make men feel their inability to obey, and thus compel
them to an exclusive reliance on Christ the head. He has
effected a complete and finished justification of the whole
world. When man believes this, he is freed from the sense
of guilt, freed also from all doubt and fear. Until he be-
lieves it, he is, whether in this world or in another, under
the condemnation of unbelief and darkness, the only con-
demnation now possible to the human race.
Those who in this life come to the belief of this com-
plete redemption in Christ are, he taught, the elect, who,
in consequence of their belief, are filled with joy and peace.
Those who go out of this world in unbelief will rise to the
resurrection of damnation, filled with despair and gloom,
and through ignorance of God's purpose they will "call
on the mountains to fall on them and hide them from the
face of him who sitteth on the throne"; while the elect,
having already come to the knowledge of what God's
judgment is, will be seated with Christ on the throne of
judgment. The Judge will then make the final separa-
tion, dividing "the sheep," or universal human nature, from
"the goats," which are the fallen angels, and send the latter
away "into everlasting fire." Then he will open another
book, "the book of life," in which all his members, i.e.,
universal humanity, are recorded, and having, like Joseph
of old, made himself known to his ignorant, unbelieving,
and terrified brethren, he will receive them all into "the
kingdom prepared for them before the foundation of the
world." 1
MURRAY'S THEOLOGY.
1 "Life of Rev. John Murray," pp. 397 ff. Union; or, A Treatise of the
Consanguinity and Affinity between Christ and His Church." By James Relly.
Providence, R. I., edition, 1782.
CC Letters and Sketches of Sermons."
By
John Murray. 3 vols., Boston, 1813. Vol. i., pp. 95, 114, 279 ff.; vol. ii.,
pp. 222 f., 247 f.; vol. iii., pp. 351 A.
C
394
[CHAP. IV.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
This very fanciful theory, as it must strike us-but not
more fanciful than was the then dominant Calvinistic idea
of the union of the elect with Christ, and his literally pay-
ing their debt-John Murray accepted and preached. I
have stated it briefly, but have, I am confident, given its
peculiarities. And whoever understands it cannot fail to
see that it thoroughly disposes of a vexed question often
raised on the part of many, both Universalists and others,
who have but a confused notion of what Murray taught:
Whether or not he believed in future punishment? It
shows that he believed in no punishment, present or future,
to fall on any man for his sins. Severe punishment was
due, and justice had exacted it, but it had all been inflicted
on Christ, who is strictly and fully a substitute for every
man. All men, therefore, would, he taught, on the score
of strict justice, be saved from all the penal consequences
of sin. His chief contention with Winchester, Rich, Ballou,
and other Universalists who taught man's personal responsi-
bility for sin and the certainty of personal retribution, was
that they made Christ's work of no account, and wholly
did away with the necessity of his mission and sufferings;
and he was greatly distressed that they did not see and
teach that Jesus had satisfied all the claims of divine jus-
tice. "I know," he said, "no persons further from Chris-
tianity, genuine Christianity, than such Universalists.”
As a preacher, Mr. Murray was an extemporizer. From
such specimens of his sermons as he wrote out after
preaching them, it is evident that his method of preaching
was mainly either the combination and weaving together a
large number of passages of Scripture, connected only by
the slightest verbal relations, or by allegorizing a Scriptural
incident or circumstance that supplied him with hints and
which he dexterously manipulated into a whole body of
divinity. As an example, take his discourse on Exodus
M
!
395
xxviii. 2, “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron
thy brother, for glory and for beauty." The argument
which he makes is, that Christ is our high-priest, typified
by Aaron; that his garments are all mankind, for he clothed
himself with our nature; that we are all holy in him, for
he is made unto us wisdom, sanctification, and redemp-
tion; and finally, that his garments, or all mankind, shall
be glorious and beautiful. This strikes us as a fantastic
treatment of the Scriptures, but it can be matched by many
orthodox sermons in that day, the preachers of which saw
types of Christ in the furniture of the tabernacle, the regu-
lations for the sacrifices, and in the most minute of the
Levitical laws.
INFLUENCE ON CALVINISM.
What was the influence exerted by Mr. Murray as a
preacher of the theological opinions just described? On
the Calvinism of America it was startling and revolution-
ary. The prevailing theory of the atonement at that time
wàs what is known as the theory of Anselm, formulated
A.D. 1109, and was substantially this: sin is debt, and it
is absolutely necessary that this debt should be paid, i.e.,
that the penalty incurred by the guilt of sin should be
suffered; that this penalty must be inflicted upon the sin-
ner in person, unless a substitute can be found having all
the legal qualifications for his office. This was alone real-
ized in Jesus Christ, a divine person embracing a human
nature. Cotton, Edwards, and Owen held that the meri-
torious obedience of Christ in fulfilling the law imputes a
righteousness to those for whom the atonement secures sal-
vation, which gives them a claim to the reward of right-
equsness in everlasting life. John Murray showed that
the Scriptures represent that Christ's death was for all;
"he tasted death for every man," he is "the Lamb of God
who taketh away the sin of the world," he "gave himself
a ransom for all," and as the debt had been fully paid, all
J
-
mag
Pablo
1
396
[CHAP. IV.
THE
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
1
A
men could justly claim release. Those who held to the
debt and payment theory could evade this only as they
denied that Christ died for all. In this perplexity, Rev.
John Smalley, of Berlin, Conn., came to the rescue, preach-
ing and publishing a sermon in 1785 which bears this title:
"Eternal Salvation on No Account a Matter of Just Debt;
or, Full Redemption, not Interfering with Free Grace.
Sermon Delivered at Wallingford, by Particular Request,
with Special Reference to the Murrayan Controversy." A
year later he appeared in print again, with this title-page:
"The Law in All Respects Satisfied by Our Saviour, in
Regard to Those Only who Belong to Him; or, None but
Believers Saved through the All-Sufficient Satisfaction of
Christ. A second Sermon, Preached at Wallingford, with
a View to the Universalists."
This new departure of Calvinism, and what it effected, is
thus stated in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" for January, 1889:
"With reference to the idea derived by Relly from Old
School theories and expressed in his ' Union,' that salva-
tion is a matter of necessity, or put by others in the more.
sober form, that it is a matter of justice, Smalley proposes
to show that 'eternal salvation is on no account a matter
of just debt,' and hence à fortiori no mechanical neces-
sity. After some preliminary statements in explanation
of the meaning of justification, he takes up the redemp-
tion wrought for us by Christ for the purpose of showing
how it is consistent with free grace in justification. He
proceeds to present a new theory of the atonement, which
has since been called the New England theory [or the
governmental theory], and which, deriving its leading idea
from Hugo Grotius [who first published it in 1617], teaches
that God, in exacting punishment for sins, did not act as
the offended party, but as a Ruler, and that consequently
the atonement of Christ was not the payment of a debt,
Categ
INFLUENCE ON CALVINISM.
397
but 'an astonishing expedient of wisdom and goodness
that we transgressors might be saved and yet God be just,
and his righteous law suffer no dishonor'-a penal exam-
ple making forgiveness consistent with the authority of the
government, but in no way establishing a right upon the
sinner's part to forgiveness. The great argument of Relly-
anism was thus refuted. Smalley had stated it thus: 'God
is obliged in justice to save men as far as the merit of
Christ extends, but the merit of Christ is sufficient for the
salvation of all men; therefore God is obliged in justice to
save all men.' The new theory removed the major prem-
ise of this syllogism.
W
"Universalism was thus the occasion of the introduction
into the world of the New England theory of the atone-
ment. In fact, the New England divines could make no
other reply. The position that the merit of Christ was
sufficient for the salvation of all men, or that he died for
all, seemed too Scriptural to be denied, and indeed never
had been except in extreme schools of Calvinism. Upon
the old theories of the atonement, Smalley's predecessors
in New England had sometimes acknowledged the validity
of the idea that the sinner could claim salvation, or that it
was a matter of justice, as he proves by quotations from
Edwards and Hooker. But these two positions necessi-
tated the scheme of Relly and Murray. The only way of
avoiding the conclusions was to acknowledge the invalidity.
of the premise; and hence it was that all the next follow-
ing New England divines employed the new theory of the
atonement as the great argument against their Universal-
ist opponents."1
The influence of Mr. Murray's preaching in making con-
"(
1 The fifth of a series of papers on The Eschatology of the New England
Divines," by Rev. J. H. Foster, Ph.D., professor of church history in Ober-
lin Theological Seminary.
398
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IV.
verts to Universalism is not easy to estimate. For the
first four years of his ministry it could not have been
extensive, since, as we have seen, when his real views
were suspected or definitely ascertained, he was deserted
and censured by many of those who had on first hearing
him been his ardent admirers. Within ten years from the
time of his settlement in Gloucester, seven other preach-
ers of Universalism had arisen in America, and if we also
count Rev. John Tyler, an Episcopal rector in Norwich,
Conn., there were eight. But Mr. Tyler never desired to
be considered other than an Episcopalian; and as late as
1798, when he published his views, he preferred not to be
known as the author of the book in which they were set
forth. Of the seven openly avowed preachers of Univer-
salism, only one, Rev. Noah Parker, of Portsmouth, N. H.,
advocated the Rellyan theology. Mr. Parker died in 1787,
whereupon Mr. Murray wrote to a friend: "I do not know
of a single preacher in this country, if I except Mr. Tyler,
of Connecticut, who is with me in sentiment respecting
gospel truth."
And after briefly characterizing the views
of Mr. Winchester, he added: "I am, I do assure you,
beyond expression distressed."
As early as 1783 Mr. Murray, while on a visit to Phila-
delphia, had preached in Mr. Winchester's pulpit, but he
records that "a greater part of his congregation are ene-
mies to me," i.e., to his theology. Indeed, I think I am
warranted in saying that, after other Universalist ministers
began their preaching of Universalism on other than the
Rellyan basis, Mr. Murray had no considerable following
except in the localities where he was personally employed.
The impression, therefore, made by his theology on the
body of Universalist believers was ephemeral. He was
present at the organization of the Association in 1785,
formed for the purpose of securing the rights of Univer-
1
B
G
Sand
}
İNFLUENCE ON UNIVERSALISTS.
399
salist societies in their legal struggle with the established
parishes, and at its final session two years later.
He was
also in attendance at the New England Convention when
it was organized for more strictly ecclesiastical purposes
in 1793, as also at the sessions in 1795 and 1804, but at
no other session. At his last attendance he was very
much distressed that he stood alone in his Rellyanism,
and greatly disturbed the harmony of the occasion by the
manifestation of a bitter spirit toward those who held other
views. "Brother Murray," wrote Rev. George Richards,
in a letter making mention of that session, "is a little like
Ishmael. His hand is against all the Convention." Mrs.
Murray, in her continuation of her husband's "Memoirs,"
says that "in the last stage of his pilgrimage he fre-
quently regretted that his attendance upon this Conven-
tion had not been more uniform; as he might possibly,
by his years and experience, have met and obviated the
difficulties which distressed him."
At Mr. Murray's death, Rev. Paul Dean, his colleague,
and Rev. Edward Mitchell, of New York, were the only
known advocates of the Rellyan theory. The former sub-
sequently became a Unitarian preacher, and the latter held
himself wholly aloof from the Universalist denomination,
and on his death his church became dormant.
Gloucester, Boston, and Philadelphia were probably more.
influenced by Mr. Murray's views than were other locali-
ties. His labors in the first two places were constant,
and his intermittent work in the last was more frequent
than elsewhere. Some form of organization was made in
these places and also in Portsmouth, N. H., which gave the
work a permanence unknown in other localities where his
visits were few. What were called "Articles of Associa-
tion: Association of the Independent Church in Glouces-
ter," were drawn up and subscribed on the 1st of January,
400
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IV.
1779, by four men and eleven women who had been sus-
pended from the First Parish Church in Gloucester "for
absenting themselves from the worship and ordinances of
God in his house," and becoming regular attendants on
the preaching of Murray. This is generally regarded as
the earliest form of organization by American Universal-
ists. They called themselves "a true independent Church.
of Christ"; agreed "to walk together in Christian fellow-
ship"; "as far as in us lieth, to live peaceably with all
men"; "to receive as our Minister, that is, our Servant,
our friend and Christian brother, John Murray";
"but should he at any time preach any other gospel
than that we have received, we will not wish him God-
speed, but consider him as a stranger." They further
agreed, since they recognized the fact that Mr. Murray
must often be away from them, preaching in other places,
that, "whether blessed with the public preaching of the
Word or not," they would meet together as often as con-
venient, for religious worship, and "once every month to
hold conference, and to deliberate on whatever may tend
to our mutual profit."
This instrument seems to have been rather a declaration
of intention to keep together, than a form or mode for cre-
ating an organization. In the records it is neither accom-
panied nor followed by any minute of proceedings. Nearly
two years after signing this agreement the original signers,
and several added associates, dedicated and took possession.
of a house of worship, viz., December 25, 1780. Before
this date they had held meetings in private houses, chiefly
"in the spacious parlors of the house" of Winthrop Sar-
gent. Mr. Murray had been absent several months in the
army as chaplain of the Rhode Island Brigade, and fre-
quently on extensive preaching-tours. But their num-
SENIO
f
TROUBLE IN GLOUCESTER.
401
bers had steadily increased, and the "spacious parlors" no
longer furnished adequate accommodations.
The assessors of the First Parish claimed the right, how-
ever, to tax all the inhabitants in their territory for the
support of their minister, and in 1782 they enforced their
demand by seizing and selling at auction property belong-
ing to three prominent members of the Universalist con-
gregation. It was at first suggested and urged by some
of their associates that the easiest way out of the difficulty
was to obtain a special act of incorporation from the legis-
lature. To this it was objected that the Bill of Rights pre-
fixed to the newly adopted constitution of the common-
wealth covered the case, and that should they "fly to the
law-makers instead of that great law made by the people
to govern the legislature itself, they should, in their appre-
hension, betray their country's freedom and act a cowardly
part." They therefore entered suit in the courts, basing
their claim on the guarantees of the constitution. These
were, as set forth in the Bill of Rights, that "All religious
societies shall, at all times, have the exclusive right of
electing their public teachers, and of contracting with them
for support and maintenance. And all moneys paid by
the subject for the support of public worship shall, if he
require it, be uniformly applied to the support of the pub-
lic teacher or teachers of his own religious sect or denomi-
nation, provided there be any on whose instruction he
attends." The application of this provision to this par-
ticular case was denied by the First Parish, on the ground
that the congregation of Mr. Murray was not a church or
religious society-" not being incorporated by any order or
authority known in this commonwealth-but a mere jum-
ble of detached members;" nor was Mr. Murray a teacher
of religion, but was to be regarded as one who, "without a
d
G
T
C
Tag
402
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IV.
character, credentials, or ordination, has assumed the char-
acter of a public teacher of piety, religion, and morality,
and styles himself clerk."
(6
•
The first suit instituted was withdrawn, as it was found
necessary to bring it in the name of the religious teacher
from whom the money had been diverted. To this Mr.
Murray strenuously objected. His reluctance to this
step," says Mrs. Murray, was decided and affecting.
He had passed through the country without allowing or
accepting contributions; and to be considered a prosecutor
for moneys said to be due to him for preaching the gospel,
which he had determined to promulgate free as the light
of heaven!—the very idea was a stab to his long-cherished
feelings." Becoming convinced that the issue affected not
simply himself, but every religious denomination in the
commonwealth that was not of "the standing order," and
also that persistence in his refusal was a sacrifice of the
personal interests of his friends and a cowardly giving up
of a constitutional right, he at last had the suit brought
in his name. It came to trial in 1783, and was continued
by appeal and review until 1786, when it was decided in
favor of Mr. Murray. At the trial in 1785 the court ruled
against him, giving it "as their full opinion that no teacher
but one who was elected by a corporate society could
recover money paid by his hearers to the teachers of the
parish." The jury gave a verdict contrary to this ruling,
and so a review of the case was ordered. At that trial
Judge Dana declared that he had changed his opinion as
to the meaning in the clause of the Bill of Rights on which
the suit was brought. "He had heretofore been of opin-
ion it meant teachers of bodies corporate; he then thought
otherwise, As the constitution was meant for a liberal
purpose, its construction should be of a most liberal kind.
It meant in this instance teachers of any persuasion what-
(C
403
·
ever, Jew or Mohammedan. It would be for the jury to
determine if Mr. Murray was a teacher of piety, morality,
and religion. That matter, he said, had, in his opinion,
been fully proved. The only question, therefore, before
them was, if Mr. Murray came within the description of
the constitution and had a right to require the money.
'It is my opinion,' he decidedly declared, 'that Mr. Mur-
ray comes within the description of the constitution, and
has a right to require the money." "1 The verdict of the
jury was that "the judgment obtained the preceding year
was in nothing erroneous." This decision secured the
legal rights not only of Universalists, but of Episcopa-
lians, Baptists, Presbyterians, and all other sects as well.
In 1790 a case from some other quarter was brought into
court and the decision of 1786 was reversed by a ruling
that "a resident of a corporate parish could not divert the
tax imposed on him for the support of religious worship
to maintain an unincorporated society." The Gloucester
Universalists then obtained an Act of Incorporation.
While Mr. Murray's suit was in the courts, a newly
organized society in Oxford, Mass., feeling that they were
concerned in the issue, sent out, July 21, 1785, letters to
believers in various localities urging a conference or con-
vention, saying "that our strength depends on our being
cemented together in one united body, in order to antici-
pate any embarrassment of our constitutional rights." A
meeting was agreed upon and held on the 14th of Sep-
tember. Mr. Murray wrote to a friend that he was to be
present, and that the meeting was "for the purpose of
deliberating upon some plan to defeat the designs of our
enemies, who aim at robbing us of the liberty wherewith
the constitution has made us free." Toward the last of
the month he again wrote: "Well, I have been to Oxford,
1'"Life of Murray," p. 335 f.
OXFORD ASSOCIATION.
▼
:
404
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IV.
L
and the assembly convened there was truly primitive. We
deliberated, first, on a name; secondly, on the propriety
of being united in our common defense; thirdly, upon the
utility of an annual meeting of representatives from the
different societies; and fourthly, upon keeping up a con-
stant correspondence by letter."
There were present Rev. Messrs. John Murray, Glouces-
ter; Caleb Rich, Warwick; Adams Streeter, Milford; El-
hanan Winchester, Philadelphia. Laymen were present
from Boston, Milford, Bellingham, Oxford, Taunton, Mass.,
and Providence, R. I. Mr. Murray brought with him a
form for society or parish organization which had been
adopted by the Gloucester Universalists, a week previ-
ous, entitled a "Charter of Compact." It was an instru-
ment with provisions for business meetings, officers, rais-
ing money by voluntary subscriptions for the "purpose
of supporting a teacher or teachers of piety, religion, and
morality, and for the purpose of assisting poor and dis-
tressed brethren," and an agreement to afford all necessary
legal measures for the relief of such as should be unlaw-
fully persecuted for choosing their own religion. The
name selected was "Independent Christian Society com-
monly called Universalists." The Association voted its
approval and recommended the "Charter of Compact" as
the form of organization for all societies. It was also
agreed to propose to their constituents "the propriety of
an annual meeting, and that the first be held in Boston
the second Wednesday in September, 1786."
In a short time the " Compact" was adopted by the
societies in Milford, Oxford, and Warwick. Boston Uni-
versalists did not adopt it. It is probable that they had
an organization of some kind before the meeting at Ox-
ford, but no records are found of earlier date than Janu-
ary 1, 1786. Taunton and Providence had no organization
Karg
Th
Tag
-
}
*
MR. MURRAY IN BOSTON.
405
until several years later. The Milford Universalists were
organized as early as August, 1785. The Warwick organ-
ization will be described hereafter. There is no record of
the meeting of the Association in 1786. A session was
held at Milford in 1787, which was probably the last. At
all events, there is no mention of any subsequent session.
Late in the year 1786, on request made by the Boston
Society, the Gloucester Universalists released Mr. Murray
the third Sunday in each month, and he thus supplied at
Boston until 1793, with the exception of absence in Eng-
land from January to July, 1788. The occasion of this
visit abroad was his being prosecuted and fined for per-
forming a marriage ceremony, the Supreme Court ruling
that he had not been ordained. The legislature alone
could remedy the matter, but as it did not convene until
February and he was liable to a suit for each of his many
marriage ceremonies, he went to London. The legislature
passed an indemnifying act in the following March. Mr.
Murray and his people contended that to appoint and set
apart a minister was ordination without further ceremony.
The courts ruled that such an act was not sufficiently pub-
lic. After his return from England the society gave him
formal ordination and published an account of it in the
"Columbian Sentinel," printed at Boston, thus giving it
all required publicity.
The movement in Boston assumed such importance and
wakened so much interest that Mr. Murray could not re-
sist the importunity of the church there to give them the
benefit of his undivided attention and residence among
them. Accordingly he reluctantly left Gloucester and be-
came a resident of Boston in 1793. Until October, 1809,
he continued in the active discharge of his duties. Stricken
on the 19th of that month with paralysis and from that
time utterly helpless in body, his mind remained clear, his
406
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IV.
[
faith undaunted, and his desire for release from bodily in-
firmity constant; and he joyfully put on immortality on
the 3d of September, 1815. His wife thus speaks of his
mental occupation in his days of physical weakness: "His
Bible was his constant companion. Seated by his affec-
tionate assistant in his easy-chair, and the Book of God
opened before him, the man of patience, during six suc-
ceeding years, passed the long summer mornings, from the
sun's early beams, in examining and reëxamining the will
of his August Father. He had, through a long life, been
conversant with a variety of English authors. Poets,
dramatic writers, essayists, and historians were familiar to
him; he took great delight in perusing them. But travel-
ing through those multiplied pages might be termed his
excursions, while the sacred volume was his intellectual
home."
is
A scurrilous letter, written by an eminent New England
clergyman not long after Mr. Murray's arrival in America,
made some vile insinuations in regard to his moral char-
acter and spoke of him slightingly as a man of no educa-
tion. He promptly called the writer to an account, and
endeavored to meet him and induce him to retract the
false and scandalous reports he had sent out"; but, said
Mr. Murray, "no arguments made use of by his best
friends could bring him to my face. He told them, in-
deed, that he was sure he said no harm of me; and that
if he had said anything to my disadvantage, he was ready
to ask my pardon; that he wrote to Mr. Forbes in confi-
dence, not expecting that I would ever hear of it."1 It
was impossible, however, to wholly stay the influence of
such a libel, and although his moral reputation suffered
very little thereby, he came to be generally regarded, even
1 See" Answer to an 'Appeal to the Impartial Publick,'" and Mr. Murray's
Broadside in Reply. Both published in 1785.
¿
AN EFFECTIVE PIONEER.
407
Personal
by otherwise liberal-minded men, as illiterate.
acquaintance always corrected this impression, but those
who never met him were, of course, most numerous, and
their opinions have prevailed in some quarters to the pres-
ent. In fact, his education was good for his day, his abili-
ties were in certain directions quite remarkable, and his
moral and Christian character was of a high order. And
while he never to any great extent nor for any great
length of time stamped his opinions and methods upon the
denomination which he did so much to call into being, the
Universalist Church regards him as entitled to a large place
in its remembrance and esteem. He was a much needed
and an effective pioneer; and the results which we rejoice.
in to-day show that he laid the foundation on which others
have planned, and builded better than he knew.
!
CHAPTER V.
ELHANAN WINCHESTER AND CALEB RICH.
As early as 1771 Mr. Murray had visited Philadelphia,
and until his removal to New England, three years later,
he often preached there. Anthony Benezet, Christopher
Marshall, and Thomas Say, prominent Philadelphians, were
his personal friends¹ and sympathized with him in belief
in Universalism, though evidently not wholly accepting its
Rellyan foundation. After 1774 his visits were less fre-
quent, but were not wholly given up, and many were con-
verted by his preaching. No organization resulted from
these labors. This came from another and unexpected
source, the conversion and labors of Rev. Elhanan Win-
chester.
K
Mr. Winchester, a native of Brookline, Mass., born Sep-
tember 30, 1751, was ordained by the "Open Communion
Baptists" as pastor of a church of that faith in Rehoboth,
Mass. Before the year closed he had adopted the plan
of close communion, and ere long he renounced Arminian
sentiments and became one of the most thorough Calvinist
preachers in the country. He continued to preach in
various parts of Massachusetts until the autumn of 1774,
when he took a journey to South Carolina and became
minister of the Baptist Church of Welsh Neck. Here he
had put in his hands a copy of Siegvolck's "Everlasting
Gospel," with a request to tell the lender "what it meant
2
1 A. C. Thomas's "Century of Universalism," p. 23 f. My Universalism
in America," vol. i., pp. 33, 406 ff.
2 Stone's "Life of Winchester," p. 23.
408
PHILADELPHIA BAPTISTS.
409
to hold forth."
"When I had satisfied my friend in that
respect, I laid the book down, and I believe we both con-
cluded it to be a pleasant, ingenious hypothesis, but had
no serious thoughts of its being true; and for my part, I
determined not to trouble myself about it, or to think any
more of the matter."
Returning from a vacation spent in New England in the
early fall, 1780, he paused a few days in Philadelphia, and
the First Baptist Church there being destitute of a pastor,
and anxious to secure his services, he remained. Crowds
were attracted by his eloquence. Soon the house of wor-
ship was insufficient to accommodate the congregation,
and the largest church edifice in Philadelphia was opened
for him.
Soon another copy of "The Everlasting Gospel" fell in
his way, and this time it was read and studied. Before
long he obtained access to Sir George Stonehouse's treatise
on "Universal Restitution," and conviction of the truth of
Universalism was wrought in his mind. For a while he
held the thought in silence, but some carefully expressed
intimations of his conviction brought him under the charge
of heresy. A statement of the facts in the case from the
Baptist standpoint was given in the "History of the Phil-
adelphia Baptist Association," published in 1832, in a
weekly journal, "The World." Mr. Winchester's sympa-
thizers in the church were, it is there stated, "nearly two
to one." They proposed to the minority "to have the
property valued and either party take it at its value."
Rev. Mr. Jones, the writer of the history, says: "I cannot
but commend the justice and magnanimity of the majority.
They were in possession of the property, much of which
belonged to them, nor had it in their power to do much
for the weal of Zion, yet they had some conscience." Why
this proposition was not accepted is not explained. The
T
410
[CHAP. V.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
minority persevered in their efforts to hold the property,
and were finally sustained in the contest by the courts.
Mr. Winchester, accompanied by about one hundred of
the excommunicated Baptists, then began a distinctively
Universalist movement. He records that "when we were
deprived of our House of Worship, the Trustees of the
University gave us the liberty of their Hall, where we
quietly worshiped God for about four years, until we pur-
chased a place for ourselves." Some time in 1781 they
organized under the name of the "Society of Universal
Baptists," and in November, 1785, purchased an estate
known as "Free Mason's Lodge." Mr. Winchester was
at this time absent in New England; hence his attendance,
as we have seen, at the Oxford Association that year. He
returned to Philadelphia in the spring of 1786, where he
continued to preach until late in the summer of 1787, when,
as see chapter ii., he sailed for England. Very much dis-
couraged, and perhaps diminished in numbers, the society
continued their meetings, their pulpit being supplied most
of the time by Rev. Artis Seagrave, of Pittsgrove, N. J.
At the close of religious service September 6, 1789, a
meeting was held to consider the propriety of calling a
convention, several churches having been organized in
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and elsewhere. A committee
having been empowered to draft a letter on the subject, it
was agreed that it should be sent to such persons or so-
cieties as the committee may deem proper." The object.
of the convention was set forth as being: "To take our
circumstances and situation into consideration, that we
may be enabled thereby, as much as in our power lieth, to
have one uniform mode of divine worship; one method of
ordaining suitable persons to the ministry; one consistent
way of administering the Lord's Supper, or whatever else
may appear desirable to any when such convention meets,
"
REV. DAVID EVANS.
4II
having regard to the practice of our Saviour, by endeavor-
ing to build upon the broadest basis of Christian benevo-
lence."
J
Favorable response being given, the convention was held
in the "Meeting House in Lodge Alley," the session last-
ing from May 25, 1790, until June 8th. Philadelphia and
New Britain, Pa., Boston and Gloucester, Mass., Cohansey,
Kingwood, Pilesgrove, Pittsgrove, Penn's Neck, and Tom's
River, N. J., and Frederick County, Va., were represented
by seven preachers and ten laymen. The preachers were
John Murray, Moses Winchester, Duncan McLean, Artis
Seagrave, Nicholas Cox, William Worth, David Evans.
With the exception of Murray and Evans, all had been
Baptist preachers, and held the doctrine of Universalism
on the Winchesterian basis, which will be described pres-
ently. Evans had been a Baptist deacon of the church at
New Britain, Pa., several years prior to 1785. In Novem-
ber of that year he appears at the same place, where he
preached a sermon "at the Meeting of the United Breth-
ren in New Britain." It was afterward published with the
title "General Election," and was an argument for Uni-
versalism as advocated by Relly and Murray. There is
no doubt that the example of Elhanan Winchester in avow-
ing belief in Universalism was followed by many Baptist
preachers and their congregations about that time. In the
record of events between 1780 and 1790, a reliable author-
ity says: "During this period a number of ministers, and
with them a considerable number of brethren, fell in with
Elhanan Winchester's notion of universal restoration. The
rage for this doctrine prevailed for a time to a considerable
extent." 1
Mr. Jones, in the "History of the Philadelphia
Baptist Association" before referred to, has the following:
The year 1790 presents no joyful aspect. Clouds and
1 Benedict's "General History of the Baptist Denomination," vol. i., p. 275.
J
dang
S
412
[CHAP. V.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
storms, tornadoes and volcanic eruptions, echoed and re-
echoed from Dan to Beersheba. The doctrine of a 'gen-
eral provision,' like an unexpected pestilence, or as the
insidious, fatal samoul of Africa, came among some of
the churches. Whether it was indigenous or exotic the
archives of the day do not inform us. This we know, it
led on to Universalism, a depot to which it as naturally
tends as a weight in motion on an inclined plane rushes on to
the lowest point of destination. Cape May and Pittsgrove
churches were so nearly ruined by 'a general atonement,'
which ended in Universalism, that scarcely anything could
be seen in their borders but their tears, and scarcely any-
thing could be heard but their sighs and groans. And to
add to the calamity, Nicholas Cox, a preacher in Kingwood,
now grown wiser than his fathers, mounted on the fractious
steed of general provision' and rode furiously on to the
barren, hopeless, desolate plains of Universalism."
،
www.
C
There was present at the Philadelphia Convention and
taking an active part in it by invitation, although not a
delegate, one of the most eminent men of his time, Dr.
Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independ-
ence, and physician and surgeon-general in charge of the
hospitals during the Revolution. He was educated a Cal-
vinist, but became an Arminian by reading the writings
of Rev. John Fletcher, an eminent Methodist preacher and
author. "I have read," said Dr. Rush, "all Mr. Fletcher's
writings, and I thank God that I ever did; for until I read
Mr. Fletcher, I never could plead the promises of God with
confidence; for being educated a Calvinist, I did not know
I was included in the atonement. But Mr. Fletcher con-
vinced me that Jesus Christ died for the whole world, and
therefore that he died for Dr. Rush. I could then claim
the divine promises addressed to me."1 He became in-
1 Stone's "Life of Winchester," p. 200.
DR. BENJAMIN RUSH.
(
terested in Universalism before Mr. Winchester's departure
for England, urged him to go as a missionary, and furnished
him with letters to use among his English friends. Their
correspondence during Mr. Winchester's residence abroad
may be found in the volume just cited. Under date of
May 11, 1791, Dr. Rush writes: "Your works are beyond
the present state of knowledge in our world, but the time
must come when they will rise into universal estimation
and bear down all the modern systems of our schools.
They are founded on a rock, and the more reason and re-
ligion prevail in the world, the more their beauty, sym-
metry, and sublimity will be seen and admired. . . . The
Universal doctrine prevails more and more in our country,
particularly among persons eminent for their piety, in
whom it is not a mere speculation, but a new principle of
action in the heart, prompting to practical godliness." 1
Mr. Winchester having preached and published a sermon
on the death of Rev. John Wesley, Dr. Rush thus speaks of
it: "Your funeral sermon for Mr. John Wesley does honor
to the philanthropy of your Universal principles. I admire
and honor that great man above any man that has lived
since the time of the apostles: his writings will ere long
revive in support of our doctrine, for if Christ died for all,
as Mr. Wesley always taught, it will soon appear a neces-
sary consequence that all shall be saved. . . . At present
we wish liberty to the whole world'; the next touch of
the celestial magnet upon the human heart will direct it
into wishes for the salvation of all mankind.” 2
413
1 Stone's "Life of Winchester," p. 196 f.
2 Ibid., pp. 197, 199.
Jet
The convention adopted Articles of Faith, Plan of Church
Government, and Recommendations to the Churches. Their
revision and arrangement for publication was committed
to Dr. Rush, who reported them back to the convention
414
L
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. V.
in the form in which they are recorded and printed.¹ The
Articles of Faith were as follows:
"1. Of the HOLY SCRIPTURES.-We believe the Script-
ures of the Old and New Testaments to contain a revela-
tion of the perfections and will of God, and the rule of
faith and practice.
"2. Of the Supreme BeinG.-We believe in ONE GOD,
infinite in all his perfections; and that these perfections
are all modifications of infinite, adorable, incomprehensible,
and unchangeable LOVE.
"3. Of the MEDIATOR.-We believe that there is ONE
MEDIATOR between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,
in whom dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
who, by giving himself a ransom for all, hath redeemed
them to God by his blood; and who, by the merit of his
death and the efficacy of his Spirit, will finally restore the
whole human race to happiness.
"4. Of the HOLY GHOST.-We believe in the HOLY
GHOST, whose office it is to make known to sinners the
truth of their salvation, through the medium of the Holy
Scriptures, and to reconcile the hearts of the children of
men to God, and thereby to dispose them to genuine holi-
ness.
Good
"5. Of GOOD WORKS.-We believe in the obligation of
the moral law, as the rule of life; and we hold that the
love of God, manifest to man in a Redeemer, is the best
means of producing obedience to that law, and promoting
a holy, active, and useful life.”
In the Plan of Church Government, "a church"
" was
defined as consisting " of a number of believers, united by
covenant, for the purposes of maintaining the public wor-
ship of God, the preaching of the gospel, ordaining officers,
$
www
1 "Letters and Thoughts: " Rush MSS., preserved in the Ridgway branch
of the Philadelphia Library.
CHURCH GOVERNMENT.
4.15
}}
2
preserving order and peace among its members, and reliev-
ing the poor." The officers were "bishops" and "dea-
cons.' "The terms bishop, elder, minister, pastor, and
teacher" were held to be the same, "intended only to ex-
press the different capacities in which the same officer is
called to act." Each church was empowered to decide
on the "call, qualifications, and gifts of those who wish to
devote themselves to God in the ministry," and to "sol-
emnly set apart and ordain such persons; and a certificate
of such appointment shall be to them a sufficient ordination.
to preach the gospel and to administer such ordinances,
hereinafter mentioned, as to them may seem proper, wher-
ever they may be called by Divine Providence."
<<
No ordinances were made obligatory or even recom-
mended, the convention recognizing the diversity of opin-
ion which had prevailed in all ages of the church in regard
to them; "and as this diversity of opinions has often been
the means of dividing Christians who were united by the
same spirit in more essential articles," this plan proposed
and agreed to admit all persons who hold the articles
of our faith, and maintain good works, into membership,
whatever their opinions may be as to the nature, form, or
obligation of any of the ordinances." It was further pro-
vided that if a church believing in the ordinances should
have a minister who could not administer them "contrary
to his conscience, a neighboring minister who shall hold
like principles respecting the ordinance or ordinances re-
quired by any member, shall be invited to perform them;
or, if it be thought more expedient, each church may ap-
point, or ordain, one of their own members to administer
the ordinances in such way as to each church may seem
proper."
The institution of a school or schools in which children
"shall be taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and psal-
K
Jak
pla
416
[CHAP. V.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
mody,"1
was recommended to each church. The holding
of slaves was declared "inconsistent with the union of the
human race in a common Saviour, and the obligations to
mutual and universal love which flow from that union."
In the "Circular Letter" accompanying the Articles and
Plan, it was said of them: "The Articles are few, but they
contain the essentials of the gospel. . The Plan of
Church Government is nearly that of the Congregational
Church. We conceive it to be most friendly to Christian
liberty, and most agreeable to the Word of God."
The conclusions reached in the Articles of Faith and in
the Plan for Churches were not hastily reached, nor with-
out the giving up of some strong personal preferences for
the sake of united effort. This is evident from the length
of the session and of what we know of the composition of
the convention. The Rellyans were in the minority, yet
much of the phraseology of these Articles, Plan, and Rec-
ommendations is decidedly Rellyan. This is particularly
noticeable in the section relating to the ordinances, and in
the deliverance in reference to slavery. John Murray and
the Gloucester Universalists were opposed to water bap-
tism. This they had distinctly avowed in their controversy
with the First Parish: "We distinguish ourselves from the
church under the instruction of Mr. Forbes by our not using
baptism as an external rite." Mr. Murray had been away
from Gloucester thirteen years before a church was organ-
ized there observing the ordinances of baptism and the
Lord's Supper, under the pastorate of Rev. Thomas Jones,
in 1806. There were but three persons out of the seven-
teen composing the convention who were Rellyans. All
the others were converts from the Baptists, retaining all
their former views, except with reference to the extent
1 Studies similar to those distinguishing the Raikes Sunday-school.
Gold
Ind
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM,
417
and efficacy of the atonement.
of such a majority were remarkable.
Soon after the session the followers of Winchester dis-
solved their organization as "Universal Baptists," and
united with Mr. Murray's friends in organizing "The First
Independent Church of Christ, commonly called Univer-
salists." They adopted the convention Articles of Faith,
ruling out the application of an avowed Unitarian for mem-
bership, on the ground that their creed would not allow
them to accept him.
When Mr. Murray reached Boston and attempted to or-
ganize a church there under these Articles, they were ob-
jected to by one whom he calls "a good old friend, who,
thinking the language of convention not sufficiently clear
and strong in establishing the doctrine of the divinity
[deity] of our Saviour, wished to make some amendments
in the Articles of Faith before he could sign them." He
was not successful, and a church was organized as pro-
posed, in January, 1791; but in less than a month the
Articles underwent revision and were made more explicitly
Rellyan, but not any more Trinitarian.
The charity and liberality
Three years later, a lengthy creed appeared in print,
emanating from New Jersey-the composition, without
doubt, of Rev. Abel Sarjent-" adopted by some of our
churches and presented to the consideration of others,"
which was avowedly Unitarian; its Article on Belief in
God beginning thus: "We believe that there is one God,
and that there is none other but he; that there is but one
person in the Godhead." Christ is spoken of not as "God
the Son," but as "the Son of God, the first and greatest
intelligence that was ever produced or brought forth by
the infinite love, wisdom, and power of the invisible Deity."
At the session of the convention in 1792 it had become
418
[CHAP. V.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
evident that it was inconvenient for the New England
Universalists to attend, Mr. Murray being their sole repre-
sentative in 1790, and no one appearing for them in 1791.
The Boston church therefore reported by letter to the
session in 1792 the condition of the churches in that re-
gion, and presented the following request: "As there ap-
pears to be a great improbability that your Annual Con-
ventions will ever be attended by as many delegates from
the four New England States as there are or may be
churches, by reason of the lengthy way to so remote a
part, and the great poverty of infant societies, who will
long be without funds, it has therefore been thought ad-
visable that a convention should be holden in some cen-
tral part of the four New England States, and that all the
churches in these States and Vermont [possibly New York
is meant] might be invited to attend. This convention,
if holden in the fall, would present an opportunity to you.
of receiving accounts therefrom in the spring, and your
letters in May might be forwarded to us for considera-
tion in the September meeting; and our doings of Sep-
tember transmitted for your consideration at the May con-
vention. . . . Should it seem meet to you, dearly beloved,
that the within be attended to, and that beneficial effects
would result therefrom, we should be pleased with receiv-
ing a few lines confirming us in the sentiments thus ex-
pressed." The convention answered: "Your information
of a proposal of forming a convention in your parts meets
our hearty approbation, upon the full assurance of continu-
ing such a mutual connection as you mention. And per-
haps it may be best to have a general meeting of delegates
from the several conventions that may be established in
some future period. And we are happy to tell you of a
similar request of forming a convention in the West."
The request from "the West" was from Washington
DR. JOSEPH PRIESTLEY.
419
County, Pa., and a convention was organized at Morgan-
town in August, 1793. As that section was then, and for
some little time after, involved in grave troubles, culminat-
ing in what is known as the "Whiskey Insurrection "-a
political difficulty which made sad havoc with all religious
organizations in that section-it was probably short-lived,
and its constituency has no further mention.
The Philadelphia Convention continued its sessions un-
til and including 1809, when it dissolved. From that time
until the organization of State Conventions, its churches
had an intermittent representation in the "New England
and other States" Convention.
(C
In 1794 Rev. Elhanan Winchester returned from Eng-
land, and after an extended tour in New England was for
several months regularly employed in Philadelphia. The
eminent Unitarian Dr. Joseph Priestley was also in Phila-
delphia several years, beginning with 1794; and between
the two, although differing in many theological points, a
strong friendship was formed, Dr. Priestley often officiating
in Mr. Winchester's pulpit, and in the winter of 1796 giv-
ing therefrom a series of "Discourses," afterward published,
on "The Evidences of Revealed Religion." Subsequently
he gave in the same place a discourse entitled " Unitarian-
ism Explained and Defended," which he concluded with
an avowal of his belief in Universalism and with an argu-
ment therefor. He began this part of his discourse thus:
Having given this account of my faith with regard to
articles of the greatest secondary importance, I shall take
the liberty (especially as I have been indulged with an op-
portunity of pleading what I believe to be the cause of truth
in this place) to express my concurrence with the minister
and the congregation worshiping here in their opinion con-
cerning the final happiness of all the human race-a doc-
trine eminently calculated to promote alike gratitude to
420
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. V.
God and benevolence to man, and consequently every
other virtue."
Mr. Winchester was now going into decline with con-
sumption; but as late as March 4, 1796, Dr. Rush wrote to
a friend that he was preaching on Sunday evenings "to
crowded audiences. . . . He is as usual, eloquent, Script-
ural, and irresistible in his reasonings upon all subjects."
During the following year he preached as he was able, and
died in Hartford, Conn., April 18, 1797.
K
Of all the early Universalist preachers, Mr. Winchester
was by far the most eminent for general learning and for
intellectual grasp, fertility, and power. With a strong
thirst for knowledge he combined an exceedingly retentive
memory, which never failed him as a preacher and writer.
His industry was untiring, and although he lived less than
forty-six years, his published works number thirty-nine
titles. We have noticed in preceding pages that at the
time of his ordination he leaned strongly toward Arminian
views, but soon became a Calvinist of the iron type of Dr.
Gill. During the protracted struggle of his mind before
avowing his belief in Universalism (a conflict with doubts
and hopes for nearly three years) he again became an
Arminian, and from this point-a directly opposite one
from that on which Murray started-he approached. Uni-
versalism. Taking his "Dialogues on the Universal Res-
toration" as furnishing the most full and connected state-
ment of his theology, we find that it differed but little from
what is now called "Orthodoxy," except in regard to the
duration and design of punishment, and the ultimate sal-
vation of all moral creatures, whether men or angels. The
purpose of God to save all appeared to him to be clearly
declared in the Scriptures, and all passages seemingly op-
posed thereto were susceptible of other and wholly har-
monious interpretations. His arguments on such supposed
J
Land
:
MR. WINCHESTER'S THEOLOGY.
42I
difficulties were usually distinguished by good sense and
always by perfect candor. With his open-hearted sincerity
and serious temper it was impossible for him to cavil or to
indulge in any sleight-of-hand treatment of any portion of
the Scriptures. Though, like most of his contemporaries
in all sects, he at times relied too much on the mere verbal
relations of particular texts, and so failed to give free scope
to the general purport of the discourse; and though he
sometimes ran into extravagant enthusiasm in accepting
as literal the gorgeous imagery of the prophecies and
apocalyptic visions-yet, so far as we know, he was the first
to introduce among the Universalists anything that can
be called Scripture interpretation. The fundamental prin-
ciples of his method, somewhat enlarged indeed, and modi-
fied by the general improvements of a century, as well as
by our revisions, are those on which the Bible and all other
writings are now explained.
His views of the intermediate state and of eschatology
were, briefly stated, these: Immediately after his crucifix-
ion, the soul of Christ went first to paradise (Luke xxiii. 43),
and there announced to the waiting, expectant saints of
all former ages, salvation through his blood just shed.
Then he descended to hell, in the lower parts of the earth,
and there "preached to the spirits in prison" (1 Peter
iii., iv.), some of whom were thus converted. At his as-
cension, the souls both of the ancient believers in para-
dise and of the recent believers in the underworld, fol-
lowed him in his triumphal progress into heaven (Ps. lxviii.
18; Eph. iv. 8), and were received with him into glory.
Before the end of the world, the bodies of all the saints
shall be raised and they shall reign personally with Christ
a thousand years on earth, in all terrestrial as well as
spiritual enjoyments. At the close of this period Satan
will be loosed and a general apostasy will follow; and sub-
-
sta
!
422
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. V.
sequently the innumerable hosts of rebels will be destroyed
in a most terrible manner by fire from heaven. Then
shall come the second resurrection and universal judgment
(Rev. xx.). This will be held on our earth. The separation
having been made and the doom pronounced, the righteous
shall follow Christ in his return to the highest heaven,
while the wicked shall be left behind for punishment (Matt.
xxv. 31-46). The earth will then be melted, by the final
conflagration, into a lake of fire, the horrible abode of lost
men and angels, for ages of ages. Their unutterable suffer-
ings, however, will bring them to submission, though some
of the most perverse may continue obstinate, perhaps, till
the fifty-thousandth year-answering to the Mosaic. Jubi-
lee of the fiftieth year. But when the earth shall have been
thoroughly purified by the flames, and all rebels, angelic
as well as human, brought to repentance, the new heavens
and new earth shall appear and universal blessedness be
complete. The Son shall deliver up the kingdom to the
Father, and "God be all in all." 1
Except in the final result, the salvation of all our race,
Mr. Winchester's theology had little in common with that
of Mr. Murray. Although both systems were founded on
Christ and the authority of the Scriptures, yet they obtained
their result from very different modes of biblical interpreta-
tion and reasoning. Personally, the relations between the
two men were cordial and affectionate. Even before they
met they had come to have more than respect for each
other. In Mr. Murray's second letter to Mr. Winchester,
after criticising quite sharply a pamphlet which the latter
had just published, he added: "When we agree I am
pleased; when we do not I am not displeased. I think you
are sincere, and I am attached to you." When they first
A poem. Books
1 See also "The Process and Empire of Christ," etc.
iii.,
V.,
viii.-xii.
REV. CALEB RICH.
423
met, in the summer of 1783, Mr. Winchester was confined
to his bed with a sickness which for a while threatened
fatal results. Mr. Murray was completely won by Mr. Win-
chester's personal meekness, affectionate temper, and warm
Christian sympathy, and nothing ever interrupted their es-
teem and love for each other. Their immediate followers
had not as much forbearance. Mr. Winchester's adherents
regarded the doctrine of Mr. Murray as encouraging Anti-
nomianism and as unfavorable to holiness. They, on the
other hand, were accused of proposing salvation by works,
purgatorial purification, instead of by a gospel of free and
"finished" justification. Mr. Murray himself, although at
times, when it required no little magnanimity on his part,
treating the opinions of his contemporary with hearty toler-
ance, could not suppress at others his deep dislike, no little
irritation, and a sore jealousy of its encroachments among
those who were led away from Rellyanism by it.2
Still another form of Universalism was advocated in
western Massachusetts and adjacent towns in the southern
part of New Hampshire. Its chief, if not sole, public advo-
cate was Rev. Caleb Rich, a native of Sutton, Mass., born
August 12, 1750. His parents were strict Congregation-
alists, and he was in very early life tortured and tormented
by the fear of hell. "I often," he said, "looked upon in-
sects and poisonous reptiles, thinking how much better their
lot was in this world than mine." Before he attained his
majority his father became a Baptist, his mother still re-
maining in the old communion. The diversity of religious.
opinion at home and the discourses that he heard at the
different churches which the family now attended, together
with his hearing it said that there were more than a hun-
dred different Christian denominations, made him feel that
1 Murray's "Letters," vol. ii., p. 112; vol. iii., p. 358.
2 Ibid., vol. i., p. 349; vol. ii., pp. 130, 264; vol. iii., p. 358.
—
424
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. V.
he stood but little chance of getting at the truth from two
only. He therefore resolved to study the Bible for himself,
earnestly praying God to enlighten him. Having practiced
this several years, and meanwhile taking up a farm in War-
wick, he associated himself with the Baptists, not yet fully
convinced just what the Scriptures taught, but believing
that he ought to do his share in supporting some Christian
congregation. At last he took up a notion from the third
chapter of Genesis, that "all men who were created in
Adam, and fell in or died in him, would infallibly be re-
stored and made alive in Christ, while those who were.
added to our first parents after their fall would cease to
exist after the death of the body." These views he has-
tened to communicate to his Baptist associates, hoping they
would be accepted by them, as they had been by himself,
as a relief of the apprehension of the endless suffering of
any; but they caused commotion, roused great opposition,
and the result was that baptism was refused to Caleb and
to his brother Nathaniel, who had joined him in sentiment,
and they were not permitted even to belong to the society.
With one other sympathizer with their views they formed
a society, and before the year closed seven others had united
with them.
The War for Independence beginning soon after this,
Mr. Rich went to Lexington, and having obtained a sub-
stitute for the eight months of his term of enlistment, re-
mained during that period with a relative at Oxford.
Others coming into his views, they held meetings at Ox-
ford and in neighboring towns, where they associated forty
or fifty with them in their belief. Returning to Warwick
when the eight months had expired, his views were enlarged
in April, 1778, and he was satisfied that there was evidence
for his belief "that the first Adam, and every individual
of his posterity from the beginning of the world to the end,
425
In
did as truly and positively pass with and in Christ from
death to life, and became heirs of the inheritance."
reaching this conclusion he claimed help from dreams or
visions, and in like manner was persuaded that he was
called to preach. In May, 1778, he began his career as a
preacher at Warwick, soon extending his labors to Jaffrey
and Richmond, N. H. A meeting of a General Society
was shortly after called at Richmond, a regular church was
formed and three deacons appointed, one from each of the
three towns represented in it. This organization antedates
that at Gloucester about a year. Church discipline was
established and an annual meeting was appointed at Rich-
mond, at which letters of license to preach were given, and
ordinations were solemnized. "At one of these annual
meetings," says Mr. Rich, "after I had preached about
three years, it was agreed that brother C. Rich should re-
ceive public ordination as minister of the United Society
of Warwick, Richmond, and Jaffrey, and wherever he should
be called by Divine Providence. We sent for Elder Adams
Streeter to assist at said ordination. Said Streeter had
been ordained in the Baptist order. His faith was increased
till it became Abrahamic, and accordingly the ordination
was attended in Richmond, accompanied with about three.
hundred people." In 1803 Mr. Rich removed to New
Haven, Vt., where he died in 1821. After his leaving
Warwick we have no knowledge how long the "United
Society "kept up its organization; nor have we any further
particulars with regard to its rules. Mr. Rich drew up a
creed to which its members subscribed, but no trace of it
can be found. He was an original thinker, and his views
underwent several modifications as to the method of salva-
tion. The theory which he settled on some little time
1
REV. CALEB RICH.
1 Autobiography. Published in "The Candid Examiner," Montrose, Pa.,
1827.
426
[CHAP. V.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
prior to his leaving Warwick, and which he ever after ad-
vocated, was that man was first created in Christ Jesus, and
then formed of the dust; and that as he stood related to
the earth of Adam only he sinned. Hence sin, as we call
it, to use his own words, "originated solely in the flesh and
blood, and ended with the same. The spirit, being of heav-
enly origin, remained pure, though blended with carnal
bodies: as pure metals were the same before being sepa-
rated from the earth or dross as afterward; as wheat was
the same before being separated from the chaff, etc."
print
CHAPTER VI.
HOSEA BALLOU AND PROGRESS.
THE most eminent and influential of all the preachers
of Universalism was Rev. Hosea Ballou, the son of Rev.
Maturin Ballou, pastor of a Baptist church in Richmond,
N. H., where Hosea was born on April 30, 1771. Just
before reaching his nineteenth year, he became the subject
of a revival and united with the church of which his father
was the pastor. It was not long after this that his atten-
tion was drawn to the subject of Universalism, by conver-
sation with several who occasionally listened to the preach-
ing of Rev. Caleb Rich. Incited by their discourse, he
soon, by reading and studying the Holy Scriptures, became
a Universalist. He then went to reside with his brother
David, who had entered the Universalist ministry; and
with some assistance from him in investigating the Bible,
and at his solicitation, Hosea preached his first sermon
in 1791.
His friends who heard him "had their doubts
whether he had a talent for such labor.” His second at-
tempt was a complete failure; but he persevered, and al-
most immediately gave his entire time to the work of the
ministry, and continued uninterruptedly in it for nearly
sixty-two years.
Con
It was not until 1796, just previous to his marriage, that
Mr. Ballou made his first settlement as a pastor, in that
part of the town of Hardwick, Mass., now called Dana.
The preceding five years had been variously employed, an
early portion of them on his brother's farm in summer, and
4.27
428
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
preaching as opportunity offered, in school-houses, private
dwellings, and rarely in meeting-houses, in the winter. He
afterward went into the southern section of Massachusetts
and the northern part of Rhode Island, preaching wherever
he could find an open door, and providing for his mainte-
nance by school-teaching, sometimes in public and some-
times in private schools, a portion of the time in Bellingham,
Mass., and a portion in Foster and Gloucester, R. I. He
was present at the organization of the "Convention of the
New England States," in 1793, and at nearly every annual
session thereafter for fifty years. At the session in 1794
at Oxford, Mass., he first met Rev. Elhanan Winchester,
and was in the pulpit with him and with the Rev. Joab
Young when Mr. Winchester preached on that occasion.
Mr. Ballou, not being a settled pastor, had not sought or-
dination, and nothing had been said about it, at least not
in his hearing, during the session; but as Mr. Winchester
drew near the close of his discourse, it was apparent that
his words were having reference to an ordination service,
particularly to the delivery of the Scriptures to the candi-
date. Taking up the Bible and pressing it against the
breast of the young man, he said, "Brother Ballou, I press
to your heart the written Jehovah!" Holding the sacred
volume thus for a moment, while the congregation were
deeply moved by the solemn and unexpected scene, Mr.
Winchester said to Mr. Young in an imperative but affec-
tionate tone, "Brother Young, charge him," which he at
once did with fervid eloquence.
Mr. Ballou was an original and fearless thinker, and had
by this time, according to his biographer, become a Uni-
tarian in his views as to the relation of the Father and the
Son.1 His own declaration is, that his brother and himself,
in embracing Universalism, "were both Calvinistic at first.
1 Whittemore's "Life of Hosea Ballou," vol. i., p. 118.
M
UNITARIAN UNIVERSALISM.
429
((
I remained so but a short time." The first notice we have
seen of his public utterance on the doctrine of Christ's
subordination to the Father," and that the atonement was
made for the purpose of changing man instead of God,
was in a sermon preached in 1795. As we have noted in
the immediately preceding chapter, there was Unitarian
Universalism and a Unitarian Universalist creed adopted
by some New Jersey Universalists two years earlier than
this, but its influence seems to have been limited and
ephemeral. Mr. Ballou's theory, however, exerted a pow-
erful and lasting influence and changed the thought of
the Universalist body at large. "As early as 1805 the
work may be said to have been completed, though Mr.
Murray at Boston, and Mr. Mitchell at New York, still
maintained the former views with great strenuousness.
But from this time onward, the Universalist ministry in
this country has, with only three or four exceptions, pub-
licly avowed and often defended Unitarian sentiments upon
these points, both in the pulpit and from the press." This
general avowal and defense of Unitarian views antedates
some ten years their public avowal and defense by the
Unitarian denomination as a distinct sect.2
At the second session of the New England Convention,
in 1794, it adopted the Plan of Church Government and
Articles of Faith formed by the Philadelphia Convention
in 1790.
But that Plan, it will be remembered, was a form
for individual churches, and made no provision for the
duties and government of a convention of the churches.
It is probable, also, since the Records do not contain the
Plan and Articles, that few copies were in circulation be-
yond the limits of the Philadelphia Convention, and con-
C
1 Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D., on the "Dogmatic and Religious History of
Universalism in America." Universalist Quarterly," vol. v., pp. 79 ff.
(1848).
2 Dr. Allen's "History of the Unitarians," p. 192 f., this volume.
430
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
C
sequently there was not much familiarity with them. Be
that as it may, the New England Convention had its at-
tention called to the need of laws for its own government,
and provision for some uniform declaration and rule in
regard to the ordaining of ministers. It also, in view of
existing "diversities of opinion in some points of doctrine,"
saw the necessity of uniting, if possible, on certain essen-
tials in faith and practice.
The laws of the State of Vermont were somewhat exact-
ing, or at least were so interpreted, on the subject of or-
dination, and certain privileges in a section of land called
"The Minister's Right" were guaranteed by them to the
first settled ordained minister in any town. Certificates
of ordination were demanded of all new-comers, and what
was known as "The Standing Order" of that State was
constantly making trouble if such certificates could not be
produced, or if, when furnished, they seemed to show any
irregularities of mode in the case of persons claiming to
be of the same sect. Mr. Rich and Mr. Ballou, in moving
into Vermont, were obliged to be reordained, although
the former had received the rite of ordination twenty-two
years before, and the latter nine years before. Rev. Wal-
ter Ferriss, who moved in convention that a committee
be appointed" to form a plan of fellowship in faith and
practice," had his right to marry people disputed, although
he had been ordained in Vermont. Mr. Ferriss and Mr.
Ballou were placed on the committee thus created, and the
following year they reported "that Profession of Belief
which we agree in as essential, and that plan of ecclesiasti-
cal fellowship and general association which we as a Chris-
tian association conceive we ought to maintain." On the
vote to adopt what was presented there were but two voices
in opposition, and one of these was that of a preacher re-
siding in Pennsylvania, and therefore not a member of
"THE WINCHESTER PROFESSION.”
431
the New England Convention. Of his action, Rev. George
Richards, a member of the convention, said: "It was a
subject of which he could not judge, and with which he
had no manner of business.”
This action was taken at the annual session of the con-
vention held at Winchester, N. H., in September, 1803, and
the Profession of Belief is, from the place in which it was
adopted, known as "The Winchester Profession." It is a
brief and comprehensive statement, and is to the present
day the basis of fellowship of preachers and churches.
is expressed in three articles, as follows:
It
"I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old
and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character
of God, and of the duty, interest, and final destination of
mankind.
❤
II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is
Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy
Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family
of mankind to holiness and happiness.
"III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are
inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be care-
ful to maintain order and practice good works; for these
things are good and profitable unto men."
There is a tradition among Universalists, held for a long
time, and supported by very late utterances of persons in
attendance on and participating in the action of the con-
vention in 1803, that our fathers of that day were greatly
averse to all creeds and adopted the foregoing only because
they supposed they must in order to obtain legal standing
and exemption from taxation for the support of the minis-
try of the "
Standing Order," or Congregationalists of New
Hampshire. As was the case at Gloucester, Mass., persons
attending Universalist ministrations in New Hampshire.
were taxed for the support of the "Standing Order," and
432
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VI.
(C
on appeal to the courts were compelled to pay, on the
ground that Universalists were not a sect distinct from the
Congregationalists. This decision was not made in igno-
rance of the fact that Universalists differed from Congrega-
tionalists in theological opinions; but wholly on the ground
-singular as it may now seem-that Universalists were
Congregationalists in the sense of being a sect of inde-
pendent parishes." Presbyterians and Congregational-
ists," it was decided in another case brought into court,
"are different sects within the meaning of the Constitution,
because they differ in church government and discipline,
though they agree in doctrinal belief. . . . Generally speak-
ing, the Universalists have no distinct formulary of govern-
ment and discipline. In large towns they sometimes as-
sociate and worship together. But embracing this tenet
makes in general no more difference as to the form of
church government and discipline than embracing the Cal-
vinist, Arminian, Hopkinsian opinions does." 1
"C
P
Jak
No adoption of a creed could possibly create exemption
under such ruling. Nor does it appear that the churches
or societies lost any of their independence by joining with
others in adopting a plan of organization for a convention.
Relief from unjust taxation came from an altogether differ-
ent source the action of the New Hampshire legislature,
in 1805, in passing a resolution declaring Universalists a
religious sect entitled to the constitutional privileges and
immunities. The Winchester Profession of Belief was a
general statement of faith in which Murray, the followers
of Winchester, and the Sarjant, Rich, and Ballou Unitarian
Universalists could all join without the compromise of in-
dividual convictions, and which all could therefore unite
in defending. While it was sufficiently definite to exclude
the possibility of mistaking its most prominent thought, the
1 MS. decision of Chief-Justice Smith, in Muzzy vs. Wilkins,
"PLAN OF ASSOCIATION.”
433
reconciliation of all souls to God, it was sufficiently liberal
in all its statements to be acceptable alike to Trinitarian
and to Unitarian, to the believer in future punishment and
to the believer that the consequences of sin were confined
to this life.
In regard to the question of ordination, so important to
the Vermont preachers, the convention refused to require
a uniform mode, but made the following the section in its
'Plan of Association":
"8th. Ordinations during the recess of the convention
shall be conducted as heretofore, at such times and in such
places and manner as attendant circumstances and good
order may require, and due and seasonable report thereof
shall be made to the Association, in convention."
Indeed, there was nothing either in the creed or in the
"Plan of Association" that seemed intended for legal
effect, or that differed materially from independency. The
particular "Associations" which were speedily organized
in various sections of the country, some of them in the
New England States, granted letters of fellowship, con-
ferred ordination, and generally exercised coördinate pow-
ers with what in 1804 became "the General Convention
of the New England States and others"; and the churches
generally continued to conduct their affairs independently
of each other.¹
Mr. Ballou's career as an author began in 1804, when
he put before the public his "Notes on the Parables," a
work which showed a mind somewhat trammeled by Rel-
lyan and Antinomian views, and not a little under the in-
fluence of the notions of Caleb Rich, that man, created in
the divine image as to his higher nature, was formed, by
virtue of his flesh and blood, under a law of condemnation,
1 For a full examination of all these matters, see my Universalism in
America," vol. ii., chap. i.
434
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VI.
and was subject to a carnal guidance. He soon outgrew
these tenets, but did not revise the work until the publica-
tion of the fifth edition in 1832.
The next year (1805) he published "A Treatise on
Atonement," a wonderful book for its day, and in many
respects unsurpassed by anything that has since been
written on the subject. It is by far the ablest work he
ever wrote, and as an argument against the dogmas of the
Trinity and substitutional sacrifice, and in favor of univer-
sal salvation, is superior in its plainness and force to many
of the arguments of confessedly better educated scholars.
But, like the former work, its early editions were greatly
disfigured by the author's philosophy, derived from Rich,
concerning man's twofold state, the created and the formed;
and by Rellyan phraseology and the accompanying fan-
tastic interpretations of Scripture. The author outgrew
all these, and in 1832 revised the work, though hurriedly,
omitting the more direct statements of his old notions, still
leaving so much mixed in the very texture of the work as
to demand for it a thorough editing in the light of and in
harmony with his final views. The book was written in
the winter of 1804-05, and was no doubt published in the
spring or early summer. The work by Rev. John Sher-
man,¹ of Mansfield, Conn., generally supposed to have
been the first Unitarian book published in America, was
issued a few months later.
Sa
Although in the introduction to the treatise Mr. Ballou
seems inclined to set the doctrine of future punishment
aside, except for sins which might be committed in that
future, it cannot be said that he was at that time fully
prepared to deny it altogether. And it is very certain
that he argued for reconciliation after death, on the ground
of our moral nature. "If the soul," he says, "continues
({
1 One God in One Person Only," etc. Worcester, September, 1805.
"TREATISE ON ATONEMENT.”
435
a rational being, cannot the All-wise communicate knowl-
edge to it out of the natural body as well as he can in it?
If the soul, after death, has a moral existence, it must be
a subject of moral principles and stand accountable to a
moral law adapted to its moral capacity; and it must be as
much the duty of souls hereafter to yield obedience to
God as it is while in the body; and to preclude the possi-
bility of such obedience would be a dishonor to such a law.
To deny the existence of those moral principles in the
world to come is denying the existence of rational hap-
piness or punishment. My opponent will say, 'If God has
revealed to us in the Scriptures of truth that he will not
afford any privilege after death to those who do not be-
come true converts to Christ in this world, we have no
right to say the reverse, however much our reason may be
put to confusion.' I answer, 'That may be granted with-
out injury to my argument, as no such revelation has been
made; when it is, it will be early enough to believe it'"
(pp. 253 ff.).
S
But the chief excellence of the "Treatise on Atonement,"
and at that time its novelty also, was the manner in which
it demonstrated from the Scriptures that the atonement
was a moral and not a legal work; and that its purpose
was the reconciliation of man to God, and not the reconcil-
ing of God to man; that it had nothing to do with chang-
ing the law, or the penalty of the law of God with regard
to human deserts, in no way interfered with the claims of
justice, and was no scheme for averting the wrath of God
from the guilty by letting its vengeance fall on the inno-
cent. It showed that while Christ labored and suffered
for man, he did not suffer instead of man; that the de-
mands of justice were no bar to salvation, but that every
sinner must bear the penalty of his own disobedience, and
that the penalty is no less an indication of God's love than
436
[CHAP. VI.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
".
is the reward of well-doing. The reconciling, the at-one-
ing work of Christ is the bringing of man into harmony
with God, a moral and spiritual result produced in the
sinner, who needs changing, not a scheme or effort for
changing the unchangeable God, nor for turning aside any
penalty of his perfect law. It is the manifestation of God's
love, not a device for transferring the demand of his wrath,
justice or by whatever other word we may call his recog-
nition of the desert of sin-from the guilty to the inno-·
Christ reconciles man to God, to obedience to his
law, to resignation to his will. And this he does by his
teachings, his example, his cross, all these being the full
and perfect revelation of what God is, and of his unceas-
ing love to all made in his image.
cent.
All this was rank heresy in 1805. Sixty years later
Rev. Dr. Bushnell, taking substantially the same ground,
and later still, the Andover Controversy, revealing how
extensively the moral theory of atonement prevails, show
that, whether confessed or ignored, the influence of Hosea
Ballou's thought has been pervasive and powerful.
Omitting for the present further notice of theological
opinions, we may hurriedly glance at the progress of the
denomination in the several States. To economize space,
we refer the reader to volume i. of this series for statistics
to date.
Tuind
Members of the Pearce family, the adherents of Mr.
Murray in Gloucester, Mass., founded the town of New
Gloucester, in the then district of Maine, about 1790. In
a few years they induced Rev. Thomas Barns to visit them
and finally to throw in his lot with them. Societies were
speedily organized, which in 1799 were sufficiently nu-
merous to form the Eastern Association. In 1820, when
the district became an independent State, there was fresh
zeal manifest, and as a result societies sprung up all over
IN THE STATES.
437
the territory. The Eastern Association became a State
Convention, and four associations were established, each
having six delegates as their representatives in the con-
vention. The number of associations increasing, the con-
vention some years later remodeled them and reduced their
number to six.
P
In New Hampshire, as shown in chapter iv., Mr. Murray
preached at an early day, and Noah Parker, a Rellyan,
was induced by Mr. Murray to become a preacher in 1777.
He at once gathered a congregation in Portsmouth, and
remained over it until his death, ten years later. Early in
this century, as we have seen in this chapter, Universalists
were recognized as a distinct sect by the legislature. In
1824 the societies organized two associations, subsequently
increasing the number to six. The State Convention was
organized in 1832.
Vermont was visited by Universalist preachers as early
as 1795, but although an association was formed in 1804,
we have very little knowledge of either preachers or
churches until 1820. In 1829 there were about fifty so-
cieties and twenty preachers. Several associations were
organized, and a State Convention was formed in 1833.
Of the early Universalist movement in Massachusetts
we have already spoken. Associations were organized at
an early date, and in all six were created when the State
Convention was formed in 1834. A Sunday-school Asso-
ciation organized in 1837, and a Home Missionary Society
in 1851. These were merged in the reorganized State Con-
vention in 1859.
Mr. Murray also preached often in various parts of Con-
necticut prior to 1800. Society organizations were created
early. Associations and a State Convention were formed,
the former in 1827 and the Convention in 1832.
Rhode Island had no Universalist organization until
438
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VI.
1820, although there were many scattered believers nearly
if not quite forty years earlier, and those in Providence had
a delegate at the Oxford Association in 1785. The State
Convention was originally organized in 1838, an association
having preceded it in 1827.
There was occasional preaching in the city of New York
by Mr. Murray before he became a resident of Gloucester.
The first organization was in 1796. About the same time
there was preaching in Dutchess County, "Elders Michael
Coffin and Joab Young" having been appointed mission-
aries by the New England Convention. In the summer of
1802, Rev. John Taylor, of Deerfield, Mass., made a mis-
sionary journey "to the northern counties in the State of
New York, in compliance with the desire of the Mission-
ary Society in the County of Hampshire." His journal¹
mentions that he found Universalists in several places
through which he passed, as Norway, Clinton, Sandy Creek,
etc. They were originally from Rhode Island, New Jersey,
and Connecticut. The same year Rev. Edwin Ferriss, a
Universalist preacher, visited the town of Butternuts, Ot-
sego County, and delivered his message. The next year
he went there to reside, continuing his ministry there and
in the neighboring settlements. The first organization
west of New York City was at Hardwick, Otsego County,
in 1803. Rev. Nathaniel Stacy—“ an Israelite indeed, in
whom was no guile "-whose parents were among the
earliest supporters of John Murray, in Gloucester, Mass.,
became connected with the New England Convention in
1803, and two years later took up his abode in Hamilton,
Madison County, N. Y. In 1805 he was sent to the con-
vention to seek advice in regard to the organization of an
association in the State of New York. It was deemed
T
1 Published in full in the "Documentary History of New York," vol. iii.,
pp. 1107 ff.
STATE ORGANİZATIONS.
439
advisable to make such an organization, and the conven-
tion appointed Rev. Messrs. Hosea Ballou, William Fare-
well, and Joshua Flagg to attend and assist in the work.
For several years thereafter similar committees were ap-
pointed to meet with the various associations at their an-
nual sessions. Such a trip, from Boston to Central New
York and return, in those days involved a journey of not
less than six hundred miles, generally by private convey-
ance, and an absence from home of not less than a fort-
night. These visits were made, too, at their own charges;
but it was very seldom that one of the appointed clergy-
men failed to be present. These were rare displays of zeal
and self-sacrifice. The association thus organized (1806)
embraced in its territorial limits all the State of New
York lying west of the Hudson River, and was called the
"Western Association." Subsequently, as other similar
bodies were organized in the State, they were designated
branches of the parent body. The original association is
still in existence, though confined to narrow bounds, and
bears the name of the "Central Association.”
Central Association." The rapid
increase of these bodies suggested the desirability of a
State Convention, and one was formed in 1826.¹
In New Jersey Mr. Murray commenced his career as a
Universalist preacher under circumstances fully set forth
in his "Life." As early as 1790 societies had been organ-
ized, and made no inconsiderable part of the Philadelphia
Convention. A State Convention was formed in 1845.
Property adjacent to the site of the meeting-house in which
Murray preached his first sermon in America is now owned
by the convention, and on it a Potter Memorial Church was
erected in 1885.
·
pag
1 The details of this history of Universalism in New York are exceedingly
interesting, as given in "Historical Sketches," by Rev. S. R. Smith, and in
the Memoirs of Rev. Nathaniel Stacy."
440
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VI.
The beginnings in Pennsylvania are already described.
There are four associations in the State and a convention,
organized in 1832.
Universalism was preached in Maryland, but only oc-
casionally, in the early part of this century. It was first
organized there in Baltimore, in 1831, although scattered
Universalists were represented in the Philadelphia Con-
vention much earlier.
M
In Virginia, societies, or perhaps it were better to say
preaching-places, were known in 1795. A convention
was organized in 1835, but the records do not show what
societies nor how many composed it.
In the Carolinas Universalism never gained much of a
foothold, nor, indeed, in any slave-holding State, until after
the war of 1861-65. One or two societies were organized
in South Carolina about 1810, and a State Convention was
formed in 1830. In North Carolina our faith was first
proclaimed in 1824. A State Convention was organized
in 1827 and reorganized in 1846.
Universalism was first preached in Georgia in 1801, in
the counties of Warren and Hancock. It is not known
that an attempt was then made to do more than gather
congregations. No organization was attempted until sev-
eral years later. Two associations and a State Convention
were organized in 1838. The latter was reorganized in
1869.
We know nothing of Universalism in Alabama before
1832. Shortly after that date societies were organized.
A convention was formed in 1858 and reorganized in 1870.
The first attempt at organization in Florida was in 1851.
Something was gained by a revived movement in 1861,
and then the war brought all religious enterprises to a
standstill.
In Ohio Universalism was first preached by Rev. Timo-
STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
441
thy Bigelow, in 1814. The growth of the denomination
there was rapid. Associations were speedily formed in
various parts of the State, and a convention was organized
in 1827.
The first Universalist preaching in Indiana was in 1825;
the first organization about 1829. The first association
was organized in 1831, which has been followed by many
others, and a State Convention in 1837.
In Michigan Universalism was first preached in 1829,
and the organization of societies began in 1830. Five asso-
ciations have been formed, and a State Convention in 1843.
The first preacher of Universalism in Illinois was the
Rev. George Wolf, a Dunker, in 1812. The doctrine of
the final salvation of all souls was always prominent in his
preaching. The first preacher in the fellowship of the
Universalist Convention settled in Illinois in 1835. A
State Convention was organized in 1837—a mass-meeting
rather than a delegate body until 1840.
Universalism gained a hearing in Kentucky as early as
1792, when a division in the Methodist Episcopal Church
resulted in some of their preachers becoming Universalists.
In Lincoln County several Baptists became Universalists
in 1793. It is not probable that lasting results followed.
Organized and permanent growth began about 1819.
State Convention was organized in 1843.
A
Universalist preachers first reached Wisconsin in 1840.
The first society was organized in 1842, the first associa-
tion in 1844, and the State Convention in 1848.
Iowa had its first Universalist preaching in 1837. Its
convention organized in 1843.
The pioneers of Universalism in Missouri are unknown,
but a church was organized in 1838. Associations fol-
lowed, and a convention in 1868.
1 "Autobiography of Rev. Peter Cartwright," p. 40.
B
442
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VI.
Our first preacher in Minnesota began his work in 1852..
A convention was organized in 1860.
Preaching in Kansas began in 1858 and churches were
organized in 1859. The field was nearly deserted during
the war, but reoccupied at its close, and a convention or-
ganized in 1869.
Nebraska had its first preaching in 1868, its first church
organization in 1871, and a State Conference in 1880.
In Mississippi Universalism was probably first preached.
in 1840. A convention was formed in 1859, but since the
war very little has been done.
In Texas pioneer work was done as early as 1850. The
first society was formed in 1855; convention organized in
1891.
In Tennessee no little stir was made favorable to the
spread of Universalism by the conversion of two Methodist
preachers in 1841, and the expulsion of a layman from a
Presbyterian Church in 1843. A few societies were or-
ganized, and recently a vigorous movement resulted in es-
tablishing a flourishing church in the new prohibitory city
of Harriman.
How much had been done for the spread of Universalism
in the State of West Virginia while it was part of the Old
Dominion, we are not able to say. As early as 1843, Rev.
George Rogers, an able and zealous pioneer, had large
congregations in Wheeling. The Halcyonists, a sect long
since extinct, many of whom were Universalists, made
quite an impression as early as 1816. A State Conference
was organized in 1891.
In California there were a few Universalist preachers as
early as 1849, but the preaching was irregular for several
years. A convention was organized in 1860.
The first Universalist preaching in Oregon was by a
zealous layman, in 1868. A convention, having also jur-
-
STATE ORGANIZATIONS.
443
isdiction over the churches and preachers in Washington,
was organized in 1874.
In Idaho the first church was organized in 1877.
In 1878 a parish was formed in Dakota, and a State
Conference was organized in North Dakota in 1893.
In Montana organizations were created in 1892.
Universalism was preached at irregular intervals at
Washington, D. C., in 1827, and an effort was made to or-
ganize a church in 1844, but no permanent results were
reached until the close of the war in 1865. A parish was
formed in 1869.
Universalism was first proclaimed in Canada, in what is
now the Province of Ontario, in 1832; in Lower Canada,
now the Province of Quebec, in 1836. Ontario has a con-
vention, and the churches and ministers of the lower prov-
ince have their fellowship with the Vermont Convention.
In New Brunswick Universalism was first preached.
about 1820. The congregation at St. Stephen's now wor-
ships with the church in Calais, Me.
The first Universalist preaching in Nova Scotia was by
Rev. William Delancy, who left the orthodox church of
which he was a pastor and organized a Universalist society
about 1833. Four years later an independent movement
was made at Halifax. This church has its fellowship with
the Vermont Convention.
W
f
L
CHAPTER VII.
AN UNFORTUNATE DIVISION.
As noted in the preceding chapter, Mr. Ballou, who,
after the publication of the "Treatise on Atonement," be-
came the acknowledged leader in the Universalist Church,
had not at that time (1805) fully settled in his mind
whether punishment after death was or was not the doc-
trine of the Scriptures. An incident occurring in 1817
brought him to a decision from which he never wavered
in after-years. A brother minister who seemed to greatly
delight in stirring up strife became a volunteer agent in
producing a controversy which resulted in much bad feel-
ing among brethren and in a schism in the church. Visit-
ing the Rev. Edward Turner, then a resident of Charles-
town, Mass., who, next to Mr. Ballou, stood highest in the
esteem and love of the denomination, he represented that
Mr. Ballou desired to debate with him the doctrine of future
punishment. Then, calling on Mr. Ballou, he affirmed that
Mr. Turner was desirous of such a discussion, and urged
that Mr. Ballou write to Mr. Turner on the subject. There
was really no such expressed desire on either side. It
was wholly, to say the least, in the imagination of this busy
go-between; but Mr. Ballou accepted the statement in
good faith, and sent by the hand of his informant a letter
to his Brother Turner. He told him that in his judgment
a candid discussion of a subject of such magnitude might
be made profitable, and added: "Though at first thought
it might seem that the two who are to conduct this inves-
444
445
tigation should be of opposite sentiments on the subject to
be argued, on more mature consideration a thought sug-
gests itself that the inquiry would be more likely to be
kept free from improper warmth or injudicious zeal, were
the parties of the same opinion, than if they were of op-
posite sentiments.” He therefore intimated that it was
matter of indifference which side of the question it should
fall to his lot to advocate. "You," he said, "have the
privilege of choosing the side of the proposed question that
you should prefer to vindicate, and come as directly to the
merits of the argument as you think proper, and leave the
other to be vindicated by me."
DISCUSSION ON FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
In reply Mr. Turner wrote: "I received by Brother W.
your proposal for a friendly investigation of the subject of
a future punishment. I am pleased that you have made
such a proposal, not because I think myself so adequate
to conduct my part of the inquiry as many others, but be-
cause I wish to inform myself more of the real state of the
question than I think I now know, or can know without
some efforts at inquiry. I shall avail myself of your offer
in selecting the side which I mean to support. I will
frankly acknowledge that I have ever been inclined more
to the doctrine of a future punishment than to the oppo-
site idea; hence, as I shall not succeed very well as an ar-
gumentator in any way, and wishing to do as well as pos-
sible, I shall endeavor to prove that there is a balance of
evidence for believing in a future state of punishment;
upon the presumption that I shall answer my own mind
best on the point to which I am most inclined."
T
Mr. Ballou, after expressing his satisfaction that the
proposal, "growing entirely from necessity, and not from
any wish to employ my time in unprofitable disputation,"
had been accepted, added: "I am equally as well satisfied
with the part your selection has allotted me as I should
446
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
have been had your choice been different, feeling a deter-
mination to pursue the inquiry with reference to nothing
but the result of candid reasoning, dictated and sanctioned
by the divine testimony."
These and other letters following them were published
in the second volume of the "Gospel Visitant," a quarterly
magazine, which ceased with that volume. They may be
said to have been the first attempt to discuss the subject
pro and con among us. As early as 1790 the doctrine
of no future punishment was advocated, and occasioned a
letter of information concerning it and a reply thereto at
the Philadelphia Convention that year. It also found an
advocate in Rev. Abel Sarjent, whose Unitarian Univer-
salism we have mentioned in chapter iv., and it was in-
volved in the theory originating in Rev. Caleb Rich. Mr.
Ballou, in a letter to Rev. Joel Foster in 1797, alludes to
a position which he had taken favorable to it in a private
conversation with Mr. Foster, but now confesses his belief
"in a future state of discipline in which the impenitent will
be miserable." In 1805, as we have seen, he takes the
ground that "if any suffer in the future state it will be
because they will be sinful in that state, and not because
of sins committed by them while in the flesh." In 1811,
in a published article on "Christ's Preaching to the Spirits
in Prison," he avows his belief in punishment beyond this
life for sins committed on the earth, and takes the ground
that the passage under consideration "is as plain and direct
a contradiction of the commonly received opinion that there
is no mercy to be communicated to those who die in un-
reconciliation to God, or in unbelief of the gospel, as can
possibly be stated.” In 1829, in answer to the question,
"What was the progress of your mind in regard to the
doctrine of punishment in the future state?" Mr. Ballou
Detal
(
DISCUSSION ON FUTURE PUNISHMENT.
447
SAR
said: "I never made the question a subject of close in-
vestigation until lately. When I wrote my 'Notes on the
Parables' and my ' Treatise on Atonement,' I had traveled,
in my mind, away from penal sufferings so entirely, that
I was satisfied that if any suffered in the future state, it
would be because they would be sinful in that state. But
I cannot say that I was fully satisfied that the Bible taught
no punishment in the future world until I obtained this
satisfaction by attending to the subject with Brother Ed-
ward Turner, then of Charlestown. . . . When I sat down
to reply to Brother Turner, who urged the passage in Peter
respecting the spirits in prison, I knew not by what means.
I could explain the text without allowing it to favor the
doctrine of future sufferings. I had, at that time, no
knowledge of any translation of the text but the one in
our common version. But on reading the whole subject
in connection, the light broke in on my mind, and I was
satisfied that Peter alluded to the Gentiles by 'spirits in
prison,' which made the passage agree with Isaiah xlii.”¹
Rev. Thomas Whittemore states that the doctrine of no
future punishment "began to excite a little attention per-
haps in 1814 or 1815"; and Rev. Dr. Hosea Ballou, 2d,
speaks of its having been combated by Rev. Jacob Wood
in 1816, at which time "he persuaded one of the Univer-
salist ministers to believe that it was necessary that the
convention should take a decided stand in favor of the
doctrine of future punishment."3 I still think it true,
however, that no formal discussion of the subject had taken
1 Mr. Ballou had no knowledge of the fact that others had reached the same
conclusion before himself. It was wrought out by him with no other aid than
the Scriptures afforded. But it was an interpretation defended by Grotius,
Whitby, and others.
2 "Life of Rev. Hosca Ballou," vol. ii., p. 28.
"Universalist Magazine," vol. iv., p. 126.
I
***
448
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
place until this in 1817. And I may as confidently add,
that no general interest in the subject had been manifested
by Universalists.
While the Ballou and Turner discussion was in progress,
Rev. Jacob Wood put forth a pamphlet entitled "A Brief
Essay on the Doctrine of Future Retribution," in which
he combated with ingenuity and commendable fairness the
two opposite doctrines of endless punishment and no future
punishment, and advocated a limited punishment for sin
beyond the grave. After quoting sharp and bitter state-
ments from Relly and Chauncy, to the effect that the doc-
trine of no future punishment gives "encouragement to
sin," Mr. Wood added: "I will not call those who believe
in this system 'stupid animals, and regret the time spent
in writing to them,' as a modern Universalian writer has,¹
but I really think the opinion very erroneous.
The many
gross absurdities to which the doctrine of immediate uni-
versal salvation is liable, and the vicious effects which it is
calculated to produce, render it a doctrine justly deserv-
ing of disapprobation and contempt."
4
S
This language roused bitter feelings in the minds of the
believers in no future punishment, and was character-
ized by Rev. Dr. Hosea Ballou, 2d-a believer in future
punishment-as "harshness." And he pertinently asked,
'Who can produce so severe and contemptuous an ex-
pression as this in all that has been written against future
punishment?" Unfortunately, it was afterward imitated
by several writers on both sides of the controversy, who
strangely mistook invective for rational criticism.
The discussion between Mr. Ballou and Mr. Turner
ceased, as has been said before, when the publication of
the "
Gospel Visitant" was suspended. In 1819, when
1 Rev. Dan Foster, in his examination of Rev. Nathan Strong's "Doctrine
of Eternal Misery Reconcilable with the Infinite Benevolence of God," etc.
į
UNITARIAN ATTACK.
449
the publication of the "Universalist Magazine "the first
weekly journal of the denomination-began, Mr. Ballou
took the editorial charge. It was expected and desired
by those who agreed with him in regard to no future pun-
ishment, that he would make the paper a very pronounced
exponent of these views. The expectation was also shared
by those from whom he differed. Both parties were dis-
appointed. He was not a man to stir up strife, and had
no desire to wound the feelings of any of the household
of faith, whatever their opinions might be with regard to
God's time and method of reconciling all souls to himself.
The editor of the "Boston Kaleidoscope," in his paper
of July 10th-one week after the first issue of the "Uni-
versalist Magazine "-made an attack on Universalism and
propounded four questions to which he solicited answers.
One of the questions was so framed as to involve in its
consideration the doctrine of no future punishment. The
editor was a Unitarian, and the next week after making
this attack issued an address "To the Public," in which
he announced that the first page of his paper would, in
future, be devoted to the explaining and defending of
"what is now called rational and liberal Christianity, as
distinguished from Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, Hop-
kinsianism, Universalism, and Deism." Mr. Ballou's an-
swers to the four questions were unambiguous, but cour-
teous, moderate, and in no sense offensive. His treatment
of the proposed defense of "rational and liberal Christian-
ity" was thorough and manly. He would be ready, he
said, to abandon Universalism when it should be shown
to be either unreasonable or illiberal; and he desired the
editor of the "Kaleidoscope" to show, if he could, any-
thing that was more "liberal and rational than Universal-
ism." The controversy continued about three months,
and the mild and considerate manner in which Mr. Ballou
G
450
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
conducted his part is manifest in a remark made by the
editor of the "Kaleidoscope," in August, that he had not
been able to understand whether "Mr. Ballou believes in
any future punishment, or none at all." And he added:
"If he merely believes the 'final restoration,' so called, he
stands on very different ground from what we have sup-
posed. Till this point is ascertained, we deem it useless,
if not worse, to continue the controversy. If not incon-
sistent with his views and feelings, we respectfully request.
him to inform us and the public on this point." We give
nearly in full Mr. Ballou's reply, as indicating the manner
and spirit in which he conducted his part of the discussion
with an outsider, and also as a specimen of the mildness
and candor with which he always championed his views
on this subject:
"There seem to appear some strong intimations in
what he has here stated that he has no objection to the
doctrine of the salvation of all men finally, if a future pun-
ishment be allowed for a time. He says, 'If he merely
believes the final restoration.' This form of expression
would indicate that he has no particular objections to make
if this be the doctrine. Well, we will receive him on this
ground with all cordiality. If he will allow that all man-
kind shall finally be reconciled to God, love and enjoy him.
through the power of his grace revealed in him who gave
himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time, we
will not disagree about the times and seasons, which God
holds in his own power, nor will we disagree on the quan-
tity or duration of that chastisement which our heavenly
Father may administer for the sinner's profit.
"But he says if we allow any future punishment we
stand on 'very different ground' from what he expected.
We will endeavor to show him and our readers that the
ground or principle is the same in both cases-that is, the
45 I
Universalist who believes that this mortal state, in flesh
and blood, is the only state of sin and misery, stands on
the same principle as does his brother who believes that
there may be a state of future discipline which will event-
uate in bringing all sinners to a state of holiness and hap-
piness.
MR. BALLOU'S ANSWER.
"Neither difference respecting the time when the crea-
ture is to be made happy, nor the particular means by
which this event is brought about, makes the least differ-
ence in principle. Two brothers, sons of the same father,
may perfectly agree in their sentiments respecting their
parent. They both believe that he will not fail to give
them all the instruction they need, that his discipline over
them is all designed for their benefit, and yet they may
entertain different views respecting time and means. One
may think that they are to be kept at school until they are
eighteen, the other may be of the mind that they are to be
continued under tutors and governors a year longer; yet
both believe that their father knows best and will order
their concerns according to his own wisdom and goodness.
He who believes that all sufferings end with this mortal
state, and he who believes that they end at the expiration
of any other period, differ only as it respects time, not as
it respects principle, for both believe that all discipline is
for the good of the punished, and therefore the sentiment
is the same.
(
'But the editor of the Kaleidoscope' thinks it may
be worse than useless 'to continue the controversy' until
we decide the question whether we believe in future pun-
ishment or not. But why should this be the case? Our
controversy is not concerning the question which he here
states; we may say, with propriety, that this question has
no immediate concern with the subject of our controversy.
He had promised to explain and defend 'rational and lib-
p
(
452
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
eral Christianity,' as distinguished from Universalism; and
we have endeavored to keep him to his promise, but we
do not succeed; and we think his sagacity has made the
discovery that we were right in our opinion that he never
would fulfill his promise.
On a subject so vast, of such infinite importance as
the one embraced in his promise, to discover any desire
to avoid coming directly to the main question, in the most
direct manner for decision, is a defect of such a character
as gives us very disagreeable sensations. What has he
answered to the numerous arguments which we have
brought to disprove his statements? Nothing. What has
he even pretended to say against universal salvation that
we have not fully refuted? Nothing. What next? A A.
new question is started: Do we believe in future punish-
ment or not? Why does not our friend act on the noble
principle which would lead him to say, 'I cannot prove,
either by Bible or reason, that all men may not finally be
saved, but I think that future limited punishment may be
supported.' Then if we disagreed at all, it would not be
on principle, it would only be concerning times, ways, and
means.
CC
But, after all, will it do to answer the question?
There would be no danger if we could say we believe in
a state of future punishment-that is, if no one would call
on us to prove it from the Scriptures. But there lies the
difficulty. We are sensible that we cannot prove that sin
and misery will exist in a future state of being..
""
At a later date, in the first volume of the "Magazine,"
Mr. Ballou, in response to a request for an exposition of
the passage relating to Christ's preaching to the spirits in
prison, republished the letter which originally appeared in
the "Gospel Visitant" in connection with his discussion
with Mr. Turner. In the second volume, a synopsis of
K
453
)) 1
one of his sermons was published, in which were less
than twenty lines on the subject of no future punishment.
These, I believe, were the only instances in the first two
volumes of his paper in which he advocated his views of
this subject. He had now been pastor of a rapidly grow-
ing church in Boston since 1817, and finding his health
and strength unequal to the extra work which the editing
of the "Magazine" imposed, he withdrew from the edi-
torial charge. Mr. Henry Bowen still remained the pub-
lisher, "and the paper was then very unwisely put into
the hands of an individual by the name of Foster, who
had been improperly recommended to Mr. Bowen; for he
was utterly ignorant of Universalism and every other kind
of theology, and unfit in every respect for such a post.'
Under this incompetent management the columns of the
paper were soon largely taken up with a crudely conducted
and provoking discussion of the future-punishment ques-
tion. Before the volume closed the publisher felt com-
pelled to make a change in its editorial supervision, and
announced that "the Rev. Hosea Ballou, of Boston, the
Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, of Roxbury, and the Rev. Thomas
Whittemore, of Cambridgeport, would edit the paper in
future." Mr. Whittemore was in full accord in sentiment
with the senior editor on the controverted subject, while
Rev. H. Ballou, 2d, a grand-nephew of the senior Ballou,
for whom he had been named, was, as we have said before,
a believer in future punishment. The unhappy conse-
quences of the injudicious management of the paper in
the past ten months could not now be averted by change
of editors. It is a fact beyond all dispute that some of
the participants in the discussion on the future-punishment
side were determined on having their views indorsed as
the views of the denomination at large, and all opposing
1 "Early Days of Thomas Whittemore," p. 311.
CHANGE OF EDITORS.
454
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
1
views put under ban. While Mr. Foster was editor they
had held a meeting to deliberate on the matter, but had
deferred action until Mr. Ballou was again in charge. Sub-
sequently Rev. Messrs. Jacob Wood, Edward Turner, Paul
Dean, Barzillai Streeter, Charles Hudson, and Levi Briggs
met and joined in issuing an "Appeal and Declaration,"
"signed, by the request and in behalf of others," by Jacob
Wood; the names of the others being for a while, until
discovered by Mr. Ballou, withheld from the public. Rev.
Messrs. Briggs, Hudson, and Streeter afterward disclaimed
any agency in writing or publishing the "Appeal," which
proved to be an announcement of a personal grievance of
Mr. Wood's, while the "Declaration" was a setting forth
of the doctrinal views of Mr. Wood and the five others
who met with him.
Mr. Wood was not a man of sufficient ability and influ-
ence to have occasioned particular notice in this contro-
versy. He became the mouthpiece and the not unwill-
ing tool of Mr. Dean, the colleague and afterward the suc-
cessor of Rev. Mr. Murray, in Boston. Mr. Dean was at
the bottom, and wholly for personal reasons, of this attempt
at division and.ostracism. Long jealous of Mr. Ballou's suc-
cess, he had declared to the latter-who had been invited
by some of Mr. Murray's dissatisfied hearers to settle in
Boston some years before Mr. Dean came there, and had
replied that he would not during the lifetime of Mr. Murray
do anything that could possibly disturb his relations with
any of the people—that should he ever accept an invita-
tion to come to Boston he "should consider it a breach of
fellowship and treat it as such." Mr. Ballou delayed the
starting of a new church in Boston until Mr. Murray had
been two years dead. From that time on Mr. Dean was
his enemy.
He withdrew from the fellowship of the con-
vention in 1823, and started a new movement in Boston.
THE RESTORATIONISTS.
455
Further details concerning this future-punishment con-
troversy within the denomination are omitted here. They
are given in full elsewhere, as indorsed by the survivors
in 1885, as fair and accurate in statement.¹ In 1831 the
dissatisfied seceded and set up a new denomination, organ-
izing as the "Massachusetts Association of Universal Res-
torationists." Eight clergymen were in the movement.
Their last meeting was held in 1841, when the organization
was dissolved. During the ten years of its existence the
ministers either in fellowship or otherwise openly avowing
sympathy with the movement numbered thirty-one against
five hundred who stood by the Universalist name and con-
vention. At its dissolution some returned to the Univer-
salist fellowship, some found a congenial home with the
Unitarians, and a few threw all their time and energy into
the Reforms, particularly the Antislavery Reform.
The secession was a mistake and a disappointment and
failure. It was participated in by a far less number of
believers in future punishment than remained in the Uni-
versalist denomination, who failed to see any cause for a
division. They were convinced that any question of this
nature was of secondary consideration, and that the cause
of truth could not be helped by divided energies and
internal dissensions. The opinion of the senior Ballou all
through the controversy, although not approved, was, they
thought, one that did not deserve the censure and bitter
opposition with which the seceders visited it. However
younger men who sympathized with his views may have
matched the invective and bitterness of those who opposed
him, they recognized his great fairness and honesty of
opinion, and the charitable manner in which he treated the
views of all. Freedom of difference of opinion on this sub-
ject he not merely tolerated-he pleaded for and demanded
1 See my "History of Universalism in America," vol. ii., pp. 260 ff.
p
456
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
>
it. He was misrepresented and his theory was called by
ugly names, and such instances of it as came to his knowl-
edge he replied to courteously, fairly, decidedly, but with-
out malice. The seceders indulged in gross misrepresenta-
tion of his views, as was to have been expected; but out-
side the ranks of those who professed belief in the final
salvation of all souls, especially among those who prided
themselves on being preeminently “rational and liberal,"
his views were also caricatured. Dr. Channing, even, was
among those who gave this interpretation of his opinion:
"Moral evil is to be buried in the grave." Mr. Ballou
was indignant, and characterized Dr. Channing's assertion
as having "the appearance of a canting throw at what he
is not disposed to treat with his usual candor." Again,
the same eminent divine said that Mr. Ballou and his school
ascribe the "power to death of changing and purifying
the mind." This was such an egregious mistake, and
evinced such ignorance of Mr. Ballou's belief, that it drew
from him these words of unmistakable import: "He cer-
tainly never heard any of us state such views, nor has
he ever read any such statement in any of our writings."
"Never," he said, "did we ascribe the power of cleansing
from sin to anything but that which the Scriptures mean
by 'the blood of the Lamb.'
} })
Ami
abov
Whatever may be thought, either by Universalists or
by others, in regard to the tenableness of the no-future-
punishment views of Mr. Ballou, the fact of his holding
them ought to occasion no surprise. The wonder is, rather,
that under the circumstances anything less extreme should
have been set against the doctrine of eternal suffering for
sin.
In the beginning of the present century, and until within
a comparatively short time, the Protestant theology con-
tained as a fundamental tenet the thought that this world
457
Here the
Rewards
had no awards either for goodness or for sin.
saints are sufferers and the wicked are happy.
for enduring the hardships incidental to Christian living
and penalties for indulging in the delights of sin belong
exclusively to eternity, and the duration of each will be
endless. There is nothing here but trouble and sorrow
for the righteous, nothing but success and happiness for
the wicked. All will be reversed hereafter, and the trouble
and sorrow will never end. Murray, Winchester, Ballou,
all the early Universalists, were born into this belief. Mur-
ray escaped out of it by his mystical union of the race
with Christ, by which all suffering was his inheritance in
Our stead. Winchester projected the severest material
sufferings for sinners far into the immortal state, but hap-
pily saw an end of them at last. Ballou, whose only text-
book was also the Bible, and who was emphatically a man
of one book, read therein that "the judgments of God are
in the earth," that "the wages [i.e., the daily pay] of sin
is death," that he "who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption," that "there is no peace, saith my God,
to the wicked, they are like the troubled sea which casts
up mire and dirt"; and from these and kindred declara-
tions he was sure that there is retribution for sin here.
He also saw that all passages of Holy Writ which seem to
teach that punishment is eternal express the thought in
words necessarily limited as denoting duration when used
elsewhere, and therefore, in themselves, afford no proof
of endlessness. He saw, too, that sometimes these words,
from their connection, could not be used as denoting in
any degree a measure of time, but must stand for its qual-
ity only; and setting over against these the unambiguous
declarations in regard to the certainty of present retribu-
tion, he contended that this latter was the only doctrine
of the Bible in regard to punishment. Shall we call it an
EXTREME VIEWS.
C
Satin
458
[CHAP. VII.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
extreme view? Was it really more extreme or more un-
justifiably so than that which it combated? And did it
not well and naturally illustrate the saying that "one ex-
treme is sure to follow another "?
P
"C
சட
The attitude of Universalists to-day with regard to this
question of the time and place and duration of punishment
of sin may well be given in the language of another. In
1878 the Universalist ministers of Boston, after a friendly
discussion continued many weeks at their Monday meet-
ings, committed to Rev. Messrs. A. A. Miner, T. J. Sawyer,
C. R. Moor, O. F. Safford, and A. St. John Chambré the
preparation of a statement which should embrace essential
principles held in common by the Universalist preachers.
generally. Their report, modified as the discussion pro-
gressed, finally took shape in the form in which it is here
given. The vote on a motion for its adoption stood thirty-
three in favor to two against. The negative votes did not
denote objections to the points affirmed, but were based
on other considerations. This approach to unanimity may
be confidently said to indicate the attitude of our church:
'We, the Universalist ministers of Boston and vicinity,
observing the widespread agitation in the religious world
with respect to the final destiny of our race, and more
especially of those who die in impenitence and sin, and
desirous that our views on this important subject should
not be misunderstood, after much earnest thought and
prayerful consideration present the following, not by any
means as a full statement of our faith, but as indicating its
general character:
"1. We reverently and devoutly accept the Holy Script-
ures as containing a revelation of the character of God and
of the eternal principles of his moral government.
"2. As holiness and happiness are inseparably con-
nected, so we believe that all sin is accompanied and fol-
PRESENT ÅTTITUDE:
459
lowed by misery, it being a fixed principle in the divine
government that God renders to every man according to
his works, so that though hand join in hand, the wicked
shall not be unpunished.'
(
"3. Guided by the express teachings of revelation, we
recognize God not only as our King and Judge, but also
as our gracious Father, who doth not afflict willingly nor
grieve the children of men; but though he cause grief, yet
will he have compassion according to the multitude of his
mercies.
(C
1
4. We believe that divine justice, 'born of love and
limited by love,' ¹ primarily requires 'love to God with all
the soul,' and to one's neighbor as one's self. Till these
requisitions are obeyed, justice administers such discipline,
including both chastisement and instruction, and for as
long a period, as may be necessary to secure that obedience
which it ever demands. Hence it never accepts hatred
for love, nor suffering for loyalty, but uniformly and for-
ever preserves its aim.
CC
'5. We believe that the salvation Christ came to effect
is salvation from sin rather than from the punishment of
sin, and that he must continue his work till he has put all
enemies under his feet, that is, brought them in complete
subjection to his law.
"6. We believe that repentance and salvation are not
limited to this life. Whenever and wherever the sinner
truly turns to God, salvation will be found. God is the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever,' and the obedience
of his children is ever welcome to him.
"7. To limit the saving power of Christ to this present
life seems to us like limiting the Holy One of Israel; and
when we consider how many millions lived and died before
Christ came, and how many since, who not only never
1 Rev. Mark Hopkins, D.D.
460
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VII.
heard his name, but were ignorant of the one living God,
we shudder at the thought that his infinite love should
have made no provision for their welfare, and left them to
annihilation, or, what is worse, endless misery. And it is
but little better with myriads born in Christian lands, whose
opportunities have been so meager that their endless dam-
nation would be an act of such manifest injustice as to
be in the highest degree inconsistent with the benevolent
character of God.
"8. In respect to death we believe that, however im-
portant it may be in removing manifold temptations and
opening the way to a better life, and however, like other
great events, it may profoundly influence man, it has no
saving power. Salvation, secured in the willing mind by
the agencies of divine truth, light, and love, essentially rep-
resented in Christ-whether effected here or in the future
life is salvation by Christ, and gives no warrant to the
imputation to us of the 'death-and-glory' theory, alike
repudiated by all.
"9. Whatever differences in regard to the future may
exist among us, none of us believe that the horizon of
eternity will be relatively either largely or for a long time.
overcast by the clouds of sin and punishment, and in com-
ing into the enjoyment of salvation, whensoever that may
be, all the elements of penitence, forgiveness, and regener-
ation are involved. Justice and mercy will then be seen
to be entirely at one, and God be all in all."
J
CHAPTER VIII.
POLITY-MISSIONS-HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
UNIFORMITY in organization and the establishing of a
polity acceptable to all has been of slow growth. In the
beginning each congregation was radically independent in
managing its affairs, and the earliest forms of convention
and association organizations did not attempt to abridge
this independence. Each society claimed, and at its pleas-
ure exercised, all the powers which were claimed by any
larger body. In consequence there was frequent embar-
rassment and trouble, especially in matters of fellowship
and discipline. As early as 1821 an effort was made in
the General Convention to remedy this defect, but it en-
countered too much opposition to succeed. Six years
later a proposal to alter the plan of representation in that
body, and to require all associations and State Conven-
tions to adopt the Articles of Belief professed by the
General Convention and to be governed by the rules of
the General and State Conventions, or such as they may
adopt in conformity thereto, was received with unanimous
favor, and a committee was appointed to draw up "the
outlines of a revised plan for the better government of the
Convention, the associations and societies in its fellow-
ship." This committee proposed a plan which unfortu-
nately attempted to do away with lay representation, and
on its reference to the societies it was disapproved. Some
difficulty, growing out of the failure to recognize authority
in the General Convention, caused the appointment of a
St
W
461
462
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VIII.
1
{
committee to visit the Maine and New York State Con-
ventions for the purpose of ascertaining their views of the
relations existing between them and the General Conven-
tion. The former body replied that it desired to preserve
harmony with the General Convention and other conven-
tions and associations, but that it regarded itself as
distinct and independent religious body, having a right to
transact its own business without the intervention of any
other religious body whatever. . . . Our convenience and
interest can be better served in entire independency."
The New York Convention passed a resolve acknowledg-
ing with pleasure its regard for the General Convention
as a sister ecclesiastical body-that we have ever ex-
pressed a Christian fellowship for that body, and that we
regard each as independent of each other so far as is con-
sistent with strict and mutual fellowship."
B
In 1832 the conventions in Maine, New York, and
Pennsylvania consented to a reorganization, provided the
powers of the new General Convention were advisory only.
A revised constitution was therefore adopted in 1833, and
the title of the convention was changed to "The General
Convention of Universalists in the United States"; and it
was to be composed of four clerical and six lay delegates
from each State Convention. "It disclaims all authority
over, or right of interference with, the regulations of any
State Convention or minor association, and will only ex-
ercise the privilege of advising the adoption of such meas-
ures and regulations as in its opinion shall be best adapted
to the promotion of the general good of the cause." All
that was gained by this revision was the securing of a def-
inite instead of an indefinite composition of the conven-
tion. The first attempt of the General Convention to
avail itself of this "privilege of advising" was in 1838,
(C
1
(6
S
A
a
{
463
when it asked "the several State Conventions to respect
the official acts of discipline of each sister State Conven-
tion." This reasonable advice and request was disre-
garded, and the denomination at large suffered from its
inability to rid itself of unworthy ministers, who, if disci-
plined and disfellowshiped in one State, sought, and in
some cases obtained, good standing in another State.
The experience of difficulties of this nature in Ohio
caused an association in that State to memorialize the
General Convention in 1841, on the adoption by that
body of a constitution and plan of church compact and
rules of discipline for societies, associations, and conven-
tions. The committee to whom the memorial was referred,
with instructions to obtain from each State Convention its
approval or otherwise of such action, reported the follow-
ing year that but two States-New York and Ohio-had
responded, each approving. The committee was contin-
ued and instructed to draw up a plan of organization and
discipline, and report the next year. No progress was
made until 1844, when a carefully drawn plan of the
powers and jurisdiction of the General Convention and
of the State Conventions and associations was presented.
In bringing it forward, the Rev. T. J. Sawyer, the com-
mittee, alluded to the fact that our different organizations,
seemingly so regularly graded from the smallest to the
largest and most important, were mere names, having in
reality no gradation in rank and influence. "For," he
said, "the moment we inquire into the more important
relations of these bodies, into their respective powers and
limitations, we shall be surprised at the chaotic state in
which they are found. We shall observe that there is
little or no uniformity of action; that there is no bond of
union between especially the State Conventions; no court
}
LACK OF UNIFORMITY.
Ma
Ja
Jurit
K
464
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VIJI.
J
of appeal for them, and indeed, no power to regulate their
intercourse or make the acts of one body respected by
another; and finally, no authority to determine many
points of practice of universal concernment and of vital
interest to the denomination. To account for this anom-
alous state it is only necessary to remind you that this
body, professedly the highest and the most comprehen-
sive, has actually the least power of any, or, more prop-
erly, no power at all. . . . As it is now constituted, it
seems to me a sad approximation to a mere nullity.
In the important matter of granting Letters of Fellowship,
including license to preach, it is a well-known and, I may
add, a lamentable fact, that we have no general and es-
tablished rules, and have no uniformity of action.
As a
natural consequence resulting from such a state of things,
the fellowship of the denomination thus granted is but an
indifferent recommendation, and is in fact reduced to its
minimum value. . . . We owe it to ourselves, and to the
great cause in which we are engaged, to give to our Fel-
lowship and Ordination a higher significance than they
now possess.
And whatever is done should be done, not
by State Conventions, but by this body. This is a mat-
ter closely identified with our interests and prosperity; it
concerns the whole denomination. It does not, therefore,
belong to the legislation of particular neighborhoods, nor
has it a thousand varying interests in various localities.
They who give fellowship in Maine, or Alabama, or Iowa
Territory, give what belongs to all of us, as well as to
themselves. They speak, not in their names alone, but
in ours also, and sign a draft which we are expected to
honor in every part of the United States."
•
What the committee proposed was laid over for con-
sideration at the next session; and that it might be thor-
oughly understood by that body, a committee of one from
&
INADEQUATE MEASURES.
465
each State was appointed to bring it before the associa-
tions and State Conventions at their sessions in the in-
terim. The session in 1845 was largely attended, and the
following, slightly modified from the original report of a
year before, was made a part of the constitution:
It
"The United States Convention has jurisdiction over
the several State Conventions of which it is composed,
and may, from time to time, enact such laws for regulat-
ing the relations and intercourse of said conventions as
the general good of the denomination may require.
may also pass such laws as are necessary to secure a uni-
form and wholesome discipline throughout the denomina-
tion. It has original and exclusive jurisdiction over the
subject of fellowship and ordination, and may prescribe
the terms on which fellowship shall be granted and ordi-
nation conferred by all subordinate bodies."
At first view it would seem that an important end had
been gained by the adoption of this article; but the con-
cession as to what the convention might do became an
empty form of permission, which was practically inter-
preted as meaning nothing when attempts were made to
do anything where uniformity of law and practice was
most needed. At the very next session (1846) the rules
were suspended at an early hour, to permit the introduc-
tion of a resolution to repeal the amendment and restore
the original article; but although this was laid on the table
and a committee was appointed to draft "Rules and Reg-
ulations governing the subjects of Fellowship and Ordi-
nation," they never reported; and when, in 1847, a protest
against this resolution, as interpreted by the Illinois Con-
vention, was introduced by a delegate from that body, the
General Convention "Voted, That it had never prescribed
any rules in regard to the subject of the protest." But a
rule had become a necessity, and at that session a com-
:
G
Ing.
r
[CHAP. VIII.
466
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
¿
mittee was appointed to report at the next session "some
plan of securing uniformity of ministerial fellowship."
This committee reported that "every State Convention
should be required to make the recognition and acknowl-
edgment of the Bible, as containing a special revelation
from God, sufficient for faith and practice; and also a
declaration on the part of every candidate to devote him-
self to the work of the ministry, an indispensable condition
of granting Letters of Fellowship, or license to preach."
This was adopted, with the following annexed penalty:
"Any State Convention or association refusing to ac-
knowledge the principle embodied in the above Article,
or to conform to the unity of action and fellowship therein
required, shall not be entitled to the fellowship or privi-
leges of this convention."
--
i
(C
This was at a time when German rationalism was being
pressed into notice and the claim was made for it that all
so-called Liberal Christians" should give it acceptance.
It was fascinating to a few young preachers, but was
emphatically and decisively condemned, in so far as it at-
tempted to eliminate the supernatural element from the
Christian records, by the denomination at large. When-
ever occasion has required, the associations and conven-
tions have not hesitated to declare in unambiguous lan-
guage that the Universalist Church bows to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ and accepts his religion as a revelation
from God. Universalists, like all others, must, in order
to holding a defensible belief, use their reason and accept
whatever is proven true; but this is very different from
assuming that reason is sufficient for discovering every-
thing that treats of God in his relation to and his purposes.
concerning man; and different, too, from discriminating
between what contradicts reason and what is simply above
and beyond reason. When the "higher criticism," so
S
M
#
467
called, settles any fact relating to the authorship and date
of the contents of the Divine Record, men will be unwise
to reject its findings; but at present it has reached no such
certainty, and no man can say that he yet has its final word.
The masters in it are constantly changing their opinion as
to what it has proven, and are probably a long way from
unanimity as to what its final word will be. They are un-
wise men in any church who are so eager to tell new things
that they treat guesses as discoveries and tentative views
as demonstrations. The advice given by some few now
among us who are so enamored of novelties as to jump at
conclusions which to-morrow may be repudiated by the
wise, to leave our work of interpreting and enforcing the
truths and duties revealed by the Son of God, as recorded
by the Evangelists, and to announce the advent of the
higher criticism," may well be unheeded and unnoticed.
"C
Passing by further notices of experiments in seeking
uniformity of action, we come to the year 1855, when a
new constitution was adopted by the General Convention,
in which occurred the following mandatory clause: the
convention "shall adopt such Rules and Regulations as
shall be necessary to secure a Uniform System of Fellow-
ship and Discipline throughout the denomination. . . . It
shall also be the ultimate tribunal by which shall be adju-
dicated all cases of dispute and differences between State
Conventions, and a Court of Final Appeal before which
may be brought cases of Discipline and questions of Gov-
ernment not provided for nor settled by subordinate bod-
ies." In 1859 an effort was renewed to make a "more
complete organization of the State and General Conven-
tions." From year to year the whole subject was in the
hands of committees who were giving much time and
labor to its consideration. The coming on of the war
greatly hindered their work, as the public mind was pre-
A DEFINITE POLITY.
T
468
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VIII.
}
!
occupied with the affairs of the nation. When at last they
reported and their action was ratified by a majority of
the State Conventions, an entirely new order of manage-
ment was entered upon in 1865. An Act of Incorpora-
tion was obtained in 1866, and from that time on to the
present the General Convention has been an authority and
power, standing at the head of the Universalist organiza-
tions and guiding their enterprises. Slight modifications
in the form of some of the laws have been made from
time to time since 1865, but all with the intent to make
more efficient the purpose and work to which the national
organization was then committed. The most notable of
these was made in the new cast of the constitution in
1870. Under this we now have uniformity in rules of
fellowship, ordination, and discipline, the collection of
needed statistics, the raising and disbursing of money, and
the general management of important church enterprises.
The sessions of the convention are now held biennially,
and its work in the interim is carried on by a board of
trustees.
In 1870 occurred the one hundredth anniversary of
Rev. John Murray's first sermon in America.
It was
commemorated by the creation of a fund designated as
the Murray Centenary Fund, amounting to $102,228, the
income of which is devoted to "the aid of theological stu-
dents, the distribution of Universalist literature, church
extension, and the missionary cause." Other offerings
during the year, which included payment of church debts,
building of churches, and endowment of schools and col-
leges, aggregated $846,309. The Murray Fund is ad-
ministered, with other funds since accumulated, by the
trustees of the General Convention. These funds now
aggregate $262,259. State Conventions and other mis-
sionary bodies hold, in addition to the foregoing, funds
Hy
H
Sold
MISSION TO JAPAN.
469
for home missionary purposes amounting to $360,000,
making in all $600,000 for general denominational pur-
poses.
To assist in the work of the centenary year, the women
of the Universalist Church formed an Aid Association and
rendered great service. When this work was accomplished
they enlarged the sphere of their operations and became
incorporated as "The Woman's Centenary Association."
Since 1875 they have supported a missionary in Scotland
and have also contributed to home missionary enterprises.
They have a permanent fund of $12,603, and their annual
receipts and disbursements are about $4000. They publish
a large number of valuable tracts, and are now seeking to
organize parish and State auxiliaries.
In 1890 the sum of $62,000, one fifth payable annually,
having been subscribed, the General Convention estab-
lished a mission in Japan and sent out George L. Perin,
D.D., missionary in charge, Rev. İ. W. Cate and Miss M.
C. Schouler, assistants. Subsequently Rev. Clarence E.
Rice was added to the corps. Beyond the most sanguine
hopes the mission has to the present time won great suc-
cess. The results are thus summarized by Rev. Dr.
Perin: "A church building with settled pastor in Koji-
machi, Tokyo; another church with settled pastor at
Shiba, Tokyo. Two preaching-stations with two evan-
gelists in Osaka. One preaching-station and regular
evangelist at Shizuoka. One preaching-station and one
ordained minister at Sendai. One station and one evan-
gelist at Okitsu. One church with meeting-house and
regular student supply at Hoden, and in all these places
regular baptized members of the church. [Baptized con-
verts about one hundred and fifty.] In literature we have
six tracts, one book, and a regular monthly magazine in the
vernacular. In schools we have one theological school in
P
470
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. VIII.
Tokyo [ten students], one girls' school in Tokyo, and one
girls' school in Shizuoka." 1
Much home missionary work is done by the General
Convention in localities where there are no State organi-
zations and also in aiding weak State organizations. In
addition to and independent of the Woman's Centenary
Association, Women's State Missionary Associations exist
in California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio,
and Wisconsin.
At the session of the General Convention in 1834 the
Universalist Historical Society was formed. Its object is
"to collect and preserve facts pertaining to the history
and condition of the doctrine of Universalism; together
with books and papers having reference to the same sub--
ject." As incorporated in 1877 the society is "composed
of such persons interested in its objects as shall sign its
By-Laws, and by the payment of One Dollar become
members for one year, Life Members by the payment of
Twenty Dollars at one time, Honorary Members for Life
by the payment of Fifty Dollars, and Patrons by the pay-
ment of One Hundred Dollars." The first president of
the society was Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D.; its secretary,
who has held the office to the present time, Thomas J.
Sawyer, D.D. A very valuable library, consisting of over
three thousand volumes of books and perhaps an equal
number of sermons, discussions, pamphlets, tracts, and man-
uscripts, has been collected, and has its present home in
the Miner Hall, a building erected for the Divinity School
of Tufts College, Massachusetts, by A. A. Miner, D.D. No
such collection of works on the subject of Universalism,
both pro and con, can be found elsewhere.
Gal
পর
1 "Our Word and Work for Missions," Boston Universalist Publishing
House, 1894, P. 125.
CHAPTER IX.
LITERATURE-HYMNOLOGY.
1
THE literature created by the agitation of the questions
involved in the doctrine of Universalism, both in its de-
fense and in antagonism thereof, has been voluminous.
Some hints in regard to it in foreign countries have been
given in chapters i. and ii. In this country it had reached,
in 1886, 2096 titles of books and pamphlets. This in-
cludes many written and oral discussions, and other polem-
ical works; theological treatises; books of devotion and for
the cultivation of the spiritual life; histories and historical
discourses; biographies and sermons. To the above enu-
meration of titles must be added 182 periodicals, including
weekly, monthly, and quarterly papers and magazines.
Many of these were short-lived, some were merged in
more vigorously sustained publications, a few of which
have been in existence from sixty-seven to seventy-five
years. Four weekly papers, one semi-monthly, three
monthly magazines, and a register published annually
since 1836, represent the periodicals now issued.
The first Universalist periodical in America was "The
Free Universal Magazine," edited by Rev. Abel Sarjent,
whose "Unitarian Universalism" has already been referred
to. It was in existence only a year, and was issued quar-
terly, published part of the time in New York and a part
in Baltimore. One of its most prominent contributors.
S
1 See Bibliography appended to my "History of Universalism in Amer-
ica," vol. ii., pp. 485, 589.
A
471
472
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IX.
was Christopher Marshall, of Philadelphia, eminent among
the patriots of his day. The first weekly paper was the
"Universalist Magazine," edited by Rev. Hosea Ballou,
and issued in Boston in 1819. Under various names it
survives to the present and is the "Christian Leader."
The first magazine, "The Universalist Expositor," began
in 1830, and was published once in two months, edited by
Rev. Messrs. Hosea Ballou and Hosea Ballou, 2d. With
some interregnums, the publication was continued until
1840, and it was a valuable medium for conveying to the
public important papers which were too lengthy and
learned for the weekly papers. It was followed in 1844
by the "Universalist Quarterly," edited by Rev. Hosea
Ballou, 2d, for the first fourteen years. After a useful
career for the public for forty-eight years, but at a con-
tinuous loss to the publishers, its publication was discon-
tinued. The first monthly magazine was "The Univer-
salist"; the name soon changed to " 'The Universalist and
Ladies' Repository." For many years this was a very
popular magazine and introduced to the public many
literary women of the Universalist Church. Its first edi-
Its publication
Tod
-
Add
tor was the Rev. Benjamin Whittemore.
ceased in 1874.
(C
The desire for a Universalist Publishing House was long
cherished, but no decisive step was taken toward its reali-
zation until the last of January, 1862, when a meeting was
held to consider the ways and means of establishing
denominational paper, to be the organ of the Universalists
of Massachusetts, and of such other States as shall elect."
It was proposed to organize a corporation the total num-
ber of shares in which should be two hundred and fifty,
an act of incorporation to be sought when the full number
of shares had been subscribed. The Executive Committee
of the Massachusetts Universalist Convention cordially
a
473
approved the plan, and the stock was at once taken, the
originally proposed amount being enlarged. The stock-
holders organized in April, 1862, as "The New England
Universalist Publishing House." In 1867 the name was
changed, the words "New England" being dropped. One
of the early adopted by-laws contained a provision that
"When the business of the Corporation shall have paid its
expenses and redeemed the stock, the stockholders shall
transfer all its rights and interests, in trust, to twenty-one
permanent, or Life Trustees, for the benefit of the Uni-
versalist denomination. Said trustees to be at first elected
by the stockholders, the principle of selection to be based
on the pro rata interest in the subscription list of the
weekly paper at the time of said election." This contin-
gency was met in 1871. Fourteen members of the first
board were from Massachusetts, two from Rhode Island,
two from Vermont, and one each from Maine, New Hamp-
shire, and Connecticut. A Publication Fund was created
in 1873. The total assets of the house are now $200,390.
It publishes and owns the titles and copyrights of one
hundred and fifty volumes and five periodicals, one of the
latter being published in Chicago, Ill., where the house has
a branch office.
PUBLISHING HOUSE.
From the hymn-books in general use a hundred and
twenty-five years ago, it was difficult for Universalists to
select any that did not decidedly antagonize their belief.
To remedy this difficulty, Mr. Murray published in 1776 a
collection originally issued in London, entitled “Christian
Hymns, Poems, and Spiritual Songs, Sacred to the Praise
of God our Saviour. By James and John Relly." An-
other edition, with hymns added by Mr. Murray, was pub-
lished in 1782. These hymns were all pervaded with the
peculiar Rellyan theology, and many of them were simply
arguments, therefore, in rhyme. As a general thing they
474
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IX.
were lengthy, some having as many as thirty and few less
than seven verses.
verses. They were also in very irregular
meters, for the most part, and a peculiar tune must have
been needed to sing a verse like this:
1
Now, through the Saviour's blood, we prove
The Father's heart and nature love,
And all our warfare finished;
Nor good, nor bad, as wrought by man,
Availeth here; nor is this plan
Added to or diminish'd.
Our bliss
Is this:
Jesus lives us,
Freely gives us
(True the story)
All his Sonship, fruits, and glory.
In 1784 Mr. Winchester prepared for his congregation
who had followed him out of the Baptist Church, a book
bearing this title: "A Choice Collection of Hymns from
Various Authors, adapted to Publick Worship. Designed
for the Edification of the Pious of all Denominations; but
more Particularly for the Use of the Baptist Church in
Philadelphia."
It was a selection of 150 hymns from former books and
was appended to an older collection, by Mr. Winchester, of
204 hymns.
At the session of the Philadelphia Convention, 1791,
and as the result of a discussion on the desirableness of a
collection of hymns that should be acceptable to all the
Universalists of the country, a committee consisting of
four clergymen and five laymen was appointed to prepare
such a book. At once proceeding to their work, the com-
mittee had their selections made, and the book agreed
upon with a printer by the following November. But cor-
respondence with brethren in the Boston church, whose in-
475
dorsement was desired, but who prefered something differ-
ent, delayed the publication, in the hope that differences
might be satisfactorily adjusted. The committee desired
a book which should give prominence to Universalist doc-
trines, while the Bostonians insisted that it should be ex-
clusively a book of praise, and not of argument.
As no
agreement was possible, the convention instructed their
committee to proceed at once with the publication. The
Boston church issued their book about the same time.
The title of the convention book was: Evangelical
Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs; Selected from Vari-
ous Authors; and published by a Committee of the Con-
vention of the Churches believing in the Restitution of
All Men." The book contained 192 hymns. About one
half were selected from so-called orthodox collections, and
the remainder were by Universalist writers. Silas Ballou,
a layman residing in Richmond, N. H., published a hymn-
book in 1785, and several of its hymns are in the conven-
tion book. Mr. Ballou could rhyme with great ease, and
had made himself quite famous in writing patriotic odes,
funeral elegies, and festive songs for social celebrations,
but his hymns were deficient in poetic form, and full of
argument. Rev. Artis Seagrave, one of the committee,
was a man of devout spirit and possessed no little poetic.
taste. He contributed, twenty-one hymns to the collec-
tion. One of the best was the following, to be sung at
closing a session of the convention:
CONVENTION HYMN-BOOK.
Dear Lord, we now must part-
A parting blessing give:
With thy rich love fill every heart,
That we in love may live.
And though we're far away,
May we united be,
And for each other ever pray
That we may live in thee.
(C
=
476
[CHAP. IX.
· THE UNIVERSALISTS.
All glory to the Lamb
May we forever sing,
And bid farewell, while we proclaim
Hosannas to our King.
The Boston collection was entitled: "Psalms, Hymns,
and Spiritual Songs; Selected and Original. Designed
for the Church Universal, in Public and Private Devo-
tion." It was compiled by Rev. George Richards and
Oliver Wellington Lane, and contained 328 hymns. The
compilers selected from all hymn-books in their reach,
revised many of Relly's hymns, and added a large number
of original hymns by Rev. George Richards. Mr. Richards
was an educated man and had long been a school-teacher
in Boston. He was an intense patriot and celebrated in
verse many of the events and heroes of the Revolution.
Many of his hymns have great merit. In 1801, while
pastor at Portsmouth, N. H., he published a collection of
444 hymns, 50 of them being from his own pen.
In con-
sequence of his obtaining a copyright, a second edition of
the Boston hymn-book, published in 1802, omitted all his
hymns and put others in their place.
In 1807, the General Convention appointed a committee,
of which Rev. Hosea Ballou was chairman, to furnish a
suitable hymn-book, alleging that "the various collections
which have heretofore been published have never had so
general circulation as to accommodate but few; and that
they have been especially tinctured with error in regard
to the doctrine of the atonement." The committee say in
their preface to the new book that "it was at first their
intention and also the expectation of the convention that
the new book should have been a collection, with the ad-
dition of a few original hymns"; but the committee, for
what they considered good reasons, changed their minds
and brought out an entire new work." As a conse-
((
HOSEA BALLOU'S CONVENTION HYMN.
quence, none who furnished the hymns being accustomed
to such work, and some of them wholly unfitted for it, a
very crude affair was produced. Some of the hymns had
merit, but most of them were void of all poetic and hymn
quality. Mr. Ballou wrote the largest number. One, at
least, of his has merit and would fill a high place in any
collection of hymns. It was the following, intended to be
sung at the General Convention, and frequently so used to
the present time:
Dear Lord, behold thy servants here,
From various parts, together meet,
To tell their labors through the year,
And lay the harvest at thy feet.
In thy wide fields and vineyards, Lord,
We've toiled and wrought with watchful care;
Thy wheat hath flourished by thy Word,
Thy love consumed the choking tare.
The reapers cry, "Thy fields are white,
All ready to be gathered in,
And harvests wave, in changing light,
Far as the eye can trace the scene."
Lord, bless us while we here remain;
With holy love our bosoms fill;
Oh may thy doctrine drop like rain,
And like the silent dew distill!
477
While we attend thy churches' care,
Oh grant us wisdom from above;
With prudent thought and humble prayer,
May we fulfill the works of love.
This book passed through two editions, and for a few
years was quite extensively used in New England. In
1821 Rev. Messrs. Hosea Ballou and Edward Turner
brought out "The Universalist's Hymn-Book: A New
Collection of Psalms and Hymns, for the Use of the Uni-
STAR
478
[CHAP. IX.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
versalist Societies." Many hymns from standard authors
were introduced, a large number of the less poetic com-
positions in the "Convention Hymn-Book" were dis-
carded, and a book of considerable merit was produced.
For this collection Mr. Ballou composed a hymn which is
to this day the most popular of all the Universalist hymns.
It was the following:
In God's eternity
There shall a day arise,
When all the race of man shall be
With Jesus in the skies.
As night before the rays
Of morning flees away,
Sin shall retire before the blaze
Of God's eternal day.
As music fills the grove
When stormy clouds are past,
Sweet anthems of redeeming love
Shall all employ at last.
Redeemed from death and sin,
Shall Adam's numerous race
A ceaseless song of praise begin,
And shout redeeming grace.
:
The first Universalist Hymn and Tune Book was com-
piled and published in 1839 by Rev. Abel C. Thomas,
and was entitled "Hymns of Zion, with Appropriate
Music." It contained 578 hymns and 196 tunes. It in-
troduced many popular airs, with hymns adapted thereto,
as also many standard hymns and tunes. A number of
hymn-books followed, so that, in all, the writer has been
able to collect twenty-seven different volumes, exclusive
of quite as many designed for social worship and for the
use of Sunday-schools. The most important, besides those
before mentioned, are a small German collection entitled
43
HYMN-BOOKS.
T
"Das neue Allgemeine Gesang-Büchlin, Zum Gebrauch
aller Aufrichten Christen," prepared for the use of a few
German congregations in Pennsylvania in 1832. In 1837,
Hosea Ballou, 2d., D.D., published "A Collection of Psalms
and Hymns for the Use of Universalist Societies and Fami-
lies." Dr. Ballou had a fine poetic taste and his hymns
were well selected. Two from his own pen, the one be-
ginning:
Praise
ye the Lord around whose throne
All heaven in ceaseless worship waits,
Whose glory fills the worlds unknown-
Praise ye the Lord from Zion's gates.
479
has all the desirable qualities of a hymn of praise. The
other, also a fine hymn of general praise, begins:
Ye realms below the skies,
Your Maker's praises sing;
Let boundless honors rise
To heaven's eternal King.
O bless his name whose love extends
Salvation to the world's far ends.
A book of hymns for the use of Universalists in the
West was compiled by Rev. George Rogers and published
in Cincinnati in 1856. It retained many of the standards
and also presented many new hymns, some of them from
the pen of Alice Cary, and some from other before un-
known Universalist authors.
J
Our space does not permit a special notice of but one
more: "Hymns for Christian Devotion; especially adapted
to the Universalist Denomination. By J. G. Adams and
E. H. Chapin." The compilers were well fitted for their
work, which they brought out in 1846, and which, having
passed through about seventy editions, is still in use in
many congregations. It contained over a thousand well-
w
*
480
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. IX.
selected hymns, many of them from later Universalist
writers than had appeared in preceding hymn-books.
Here appears Rev. Dr. Chapin's beautiful Christmas
hymn:
Hark! hark! with harps of gold,
What anthem do they sing?
The radiant clouds have backward rolled,
And angels smite the string.
Glory to God! bright wings
Spread glist'ning and afar,
And on the hallowed rapture rings
From circling star to star.
Dr. Adams's hymn of faith:
Heaven is here; its hymns of gladness
Cheer the true believer's way,
In this world where sin and sadness
Often change to night our day.
}
Mrs. Caroline M. Sawyer's finely expressed prayer:
We gather in the name of God,
And, bowing down the head,
We stretch our waiting hands abroad,
And humbly ask for aid.
For aid, when o'er the spirit's day,
Thick clouds of darkness rest,
That we may chase the gloom away,
And light the darkened breast.
66
Here, too, first appeared Mrs. Mary A. Livermore's
hymn on the reclaiming power of love:
Jesus, what precept is like thine,
Forgive, as ye would be forgiven!
If heeded, O what power divine
Would then transform our earth to heaven.
""
4
}
HYMN-WRITERS.
48I
Here, also, are hymns from the gifted pen of Rev.
Henry Bacon, from Julia A. Fletcher, Mrs. L. J. B. Case,
Sarah C. Edgarton, Sir James Edward Smith, and many
others whose work has enriched the literature of the
Universalist Church.
A
CHAPTER X.
EDUCATION-YOUNG PEOPLE.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS in America no doubt date from the
establishing of one by the branch of the Dunkers located
at Ephrata, Pa., in 1740, but discontinued in 1777 in con-
sequence of the occupation of the buildings of that com-
munity for hospital purposes after the Battle of Brandy-
wine. The action of the Philadelphia Convention, 1790,
on the subject of schools somewhat modeled after those es-
tablished ten years before by Robert Raikes, of Glouces-
ter, England, has been mentioned in chapter v., as well as
the part taken by Dr. Benjamin Rush in arranging what
the convention adopted. This may have some significance.
in connection with the fact that later that year he held a
consultation with Bishop William White, Episcopalian, and
Matthew Carey, Roman Catholic, which resulted in a pub-
lic meeting called by them in December, at which time a
constitution for "The First-Day or Sunday-school So-
ciety," of Philadelphia, was adopted. Their object was
the same as that of Raikes in his work. After petitioning
the legislature in vain for the establishment of Sunday-
schools as free schools, they raised the necessary funds for
carrying on the work by voluntary contributions. During
the first year the number of schools increased to three,
containing about two hundred pupils each. Early and
persistent efforts were made to use these schools for secta-
rian purposes, but they were defeated by the managers.
4.82
T
brand
483
By 1816 so many of the patrons had withdrawn their sup-
port for the purpose of forming sectarian schools, that the
work of the society ceased. It is to be regarded, however,
as the pioneer of the continuous Sunday-school enterprise
in this country. One month after it began, viz., in April,
1791, Oliver Wellington Lane, a school-teacher in Boston,
and a deacon in the Universalist Church, opened a Sunday-
school in his school-room. This was continued until Mr.
Lane's death in 1793. This was also according to the plan.
of the Raikes' school, and there is no doubt that it was the
first Sunday-school set up in New England.
The Universalists of Philadelphia probably did their
share in supporting the schools of "The First-Day So-
ciety"; and when it ceased operations, they organized two
schools on the same plan, one for girls, October, 1816, and
one for boys in December of the same year. The children
of the very poor were sought out, decently clothed, and
well instructed. One of the rules was: "The tutors shall
instruct the children in reading, and in committing to mem-
ory passages of Holy Writ; They shall enjoin their fre-
quent attendance at church, and endeavor to lead them in
the path of virtue by pointing out the happiness attending
it, and the fatal effects and misery of vice." Applicants
became so numerous, teachers so few, and funds so low,
that ere long it became necessary to limit each department
to fifty scholars. The first Universalist Sunday-school on
the modern plan was formed in the Universalist church
in Boston, in 1817, under the ministry of Rev. Paul Dean.
When Mr. Dean resigned in 1823, the school became dor-
mant several years. Our oldest Sunday-school having un-
interrupted existence from the time of its organization in
June, 1820, is at Gloucester, Mass. There are now about
seven hundred Sunday-schools, with a membership of
nearly fifty-nine thousand,
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS.
-
A
484
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. X.
B
During his residence in Gloucester, probably as early as
1780, Rev. Mr. Murray instituted the rite of the Dedication
of Children, parents bringing their young children to church
and having them received by the minister, and dedicated as
God's gift, to his loving service. This ceremony, peculiar
to the Universalist Church, has been more or less observed
through our entire history, but for many years no particu-
lar day was designated for it. On the second Sunday in
June, 1856, C. H. Leonard, D.D., then pastor of the church
at Chelsea, Mass., instituted "Children's Sunday," a day
for the special observance of this rite, and for services par-
ticularly adapted to the capacity, needs, and enjoyment of
the children of the Sunday-school. The service has been
annually observed in that church ever since, and was soon
taken up in other Universalist churches. In 1867 the
General Convention commended the observance to all, and
in 1868 "recommended that the second Sunday in June.
of each year be named and set apart as Children's Sun-
day." The day is now very generally observed, and has
been so designated and used by other Protestant churches.
"
A very serious annoyance to Universalists in the early
years of this century arose from the fact that the boarding-
schools, academies, and colleges of the land were nearly all
controlled by denominations of Christians hostile to the
doctrine of universal grace, who often considered it more
important to indoctrinate the pupils with their sectarian
views than to give instruction in the branches which they
had advertised to teach. Not only were pupils compelled
by school regulations to attend a particular church, against
their wishes and the preference of their parents, but they
were also subjected to ridicule for any manifestation of re-
spect for the religious opinions avowed in their homes, and
were insulted by being compelled to listen to denunciations
of those opinions made in the most opprobrious terms, and
St
485
by hearing the characters of their parents traduced and
aspersed on account of their religious faith.
The first concerted effort to remedy this grievance by
establishing schools which should be under more liberal
control, was made in 1814, and continued in the conven-
tion and outside until 1819, when report was made to the
convention that their committee had succeeded in estab-
lishing the "Nichols Academy, in the town of Dudley,
Mass."
It was arranged that the trustees should be mem-
bers of the convention. Every step in this action was
doubtless incited by Amasa Nichols, Esq., a successful
merchant, and an ardent Universalist of Dudley, who
erected in 1815, wholly at his own expense, at a cost of
$10,000, a building for academical purposes. The build-
ing was ready for occupation and a school had been opened
in it by Barton Ballou, A.M.-a graduate of Brown Uni-
versity, class of 1813, and afterward a Universalist preacher
-in 1816, when by accidental fire it was destroyed.
was at once proposed to build anew, and outside aid was
solicited. In 1818 the new building was so far completed
as to be opened for school purposes, and in 1819 it was in-
corporated by the legislature, the corporators being all
Universalists. They were in debt, the building incom-
pleted, and by the terms of the deed of gift by Mr. Nichols,
were obligated to maintain a school. In 1823 they peti-
tioned the legislature for aid, the precedent of aiding such
institutions having been long established. The petitioners
were given to understand by the Board of Education that,
if they would raise and secure to the academy a fund of
not less than $2000, their prospects would be good for a
grant of half a township of wild land in Maine.
This was
done, the grant obtained, and the land was at once sold
for $2500. With this amount and that from subscriptions,
the building was finished and improved. At this time the
Ng
NICHOLS ACADEMY.
486
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. X.
trustees made a fatal blunder.
Overlooking the conditions
of support by the convention, as expressed in its votes in
1819, or, perhaps, believing themselves able to change the
conditions, the majority of the board reached the conclu-
sion that if a portion of their number should be selected
from other denominations of Christians, it would be to the
advantage of the school in giving it a non-sectarian char-
acter. To this Mr. Nichols stoutly objected, but was
overruled, and two vacancies in the board were filled by
gentlemen not Universalists. Mr. Nichols refused to be
reconciled to the change of policy, resigned his position as
trustee and the office of secretary, and never after took
any interest in the affair of the academy. The majority
of the board yielded to annoyances and discouragements,
and resigned their positions, and the school soon passed
from the control of the Universalists.
The subject of a denominational school was agitated in
the State of New York in 1831. The plan embraced a
literary institution, "not only for general purposes of
science and literature, but with a particular view of fur-
nishing with an education young men designed for the
ministry of reconciliation." At a meeting held in the in-
terest of the proposal it was set forth that "the respective
boarding-schools, academies, and colleges of this State are
exclusively controlled by various Christian denominations
hostile to the doctrine of the final holiness and purity of
all men; that in all these institutions the most unwarrant-
able means are employed to overawe and control the minds
of the pupils; that they are generally obliged by school
regulations to attend a particular church, without respect
to the choice of the pupil or the preference of friends; that
they are tantalized by ridicule and menace for avowing
respect for principles and doctrines not approved by the
managers of the institution; that they are perpetually in-
G
Ja
487
sulted by hearing the sentiments of liberal Christians de-
nounced in the most unfeeling manner and opprobrious.
terms, and by hearing the characters of their parents or
guardians tråduced or aspersed on account of their religious
faith; that they are perplexed and harassed with systematic
attempts to win them over to the doctrines of a favorite
sect. For which purpose the catechism has been substi-
tuted for books of science, religious meetings have taken
the place of school instruction, and instructresses and
teachers of grammar and geography have become lecturers
on theology."
ACADEMIES.
Co
The project was heartily indorsed by the Universalists
of the State, and in November, 1831, the male and female
departments of the Clinton Liberal Institute were opened
at Clinton, Oneida County. Suitable buildings were soon
furnished, and largely under the direction of the Rev.
Stephen R. Smith, who may be said to have been the
originator of the project, certainly the most persistent and
untiring worker for its success, the State was canvassed for
funds, and many pupils entered the school. Like most
institutions of its kind, the institute has had its trials, re-
verses, pecuniary embarrassments, and fluctuating fortunes.
In 1879 it moved to Fort Plain, where it has well-equipped
buildings, a large corps of teachers, and an increasing
patronage.
Westbrook Seminary, located at Deering, Me., was
opened for pupils in 1834, preparation therefor having
been begun in 1831. In 1863 its charter was so amended
that it was empowered to prescribe a course of study for
young ladies equivalent to that of any female college in
New England, and to confer the honors and degrees that
are generally granted by female colleges. Since that time
the title of the institution has been the "Westbrook Semi-
nary and Female College."
488
[CHAP. X.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
。
The Green Mountain Perkins Academy, at first called.
the "Green Mountain Liberal Institute," located at South
Woodstock, Vt., was opened for pupils in 1848.
Dean Academy, in Franklin, Mass., takes its name from.
Oliver Dean, M.D., its most bountiful patron, who gave at
first $50,000 as a permanent fund, and $10,000 toward
the erection of a suitable building, together with eight acres
of land formerly a part of the farm of the famous Nathaniel
Emmons, D.D. Subsequently Dr. Dean's gifts were very
largely increased. The academy has a fine property and
is largely attended.
Goddard Seminary was first named the "Green Moun-
tain Central Institute." Located in Barre, Vt., it was
opened for students in 1870. In November of that year
the name was changed, in memory of Mr. Thomas A.
Goddard, then deceased, who, with his wife, was deeply
interested in our educational enterprises. It is a flourish-
ing seminary.
•
An institution called the Throop University, in honor
of Hon. A. G. Throop, who endowed it with $200,000,
was opened in Pasadena, Cal., in 1891. Subsequently its
name was changed to the Throop Polytechnic Institute.
By provision of its charter the majority of its board of
trustees must always be persons connected with the Uni-
versalist denomination.
Other schools have been temporarily put in operation by
us, but the above-named have alone reached permanence.
It formed part of the plan in the effort begun by the
convention in 1814, to make provision for theological edu-
cation as well as for secular and classical instruction. To
this end a conference was sought with the Western Asso-
ciation, at its session in 1815. Tenacious opposition to a
theological institution and to the proposal to give gratuitous
instruction to indigent young men, which, it was argued,
489
had "proved deleterious to other denominations," defeated
the effort. In 1827 the General Convention appointed a
committee to report a practicable plan for establishing a
theological seminary. The committee made no progress,
and no further action was had until the session in 1835,
when on motion of Rev. T. J. Sawyer, "the subject was
recommended to the consideration of the members of our
denomination." Agitation succeeded, and the Massachu-
setts Convention, at its session in 1840, resolved that it
was expedient to act, and appointed a committee to nom-
inate "a board of trustees, whose duty it shall be to select
a site for an institution, to take a deed thereof in trust for
this convention, to raise the funds, and to erect a suitable.
building, to appoint its principal and other officers," etc.
At one of the meetings of this committee, "in consequence
of an offer made by Mr. Charles Tufts, of Charlestown, to
make a gift of ten acres on Walnut Hill,¹ as a site for the
institution," they agreed to call the proposed theological
school the "Walnut Hill Evangelical Seminary." The
board of trustees named by this committee, organized on
the 25th of January, 1841, with Dr. Oliver Dean, president,
Rev. Thomas Whittemore, secretary, and Timothy Cotting,
Esq., treasurer. An agent, Rev. Calvin Gardner, was ap-
pointed to solicit funds for the endowment of the seminary.
But the time evidently had not arrived for success. Strong
opposition developed as the canvass was pushed, and the
records contain no entry after October, 1841.
In 1845 Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D.D., took charge of
the Clinton Liberal Institute, and in addition to his duties
as principal undertook to devote two hours each day to
the instruction of such students in theology as should at-
tend. The instruction was without cost to the students, a
pledge having been made that compensation should be ob-
1 The hill now occupied by Tufts College.
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
S
490
[CHAP. X.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
tained for Dr. Sawyer by general subscription and a fund
of $10,000 should be created for the support of the school.
The latter was not done, and the former was very incon-
siderable. Still, under manifold difficulties and discour-
agements, Dr. Sawyer persevered until the class was sur-
rendered in the autumn of 1853. In all, thirty-seven
were thus fitted for the ministry. At the present date
twelve of this number are in the Universalist ministry, two
in the Unitarian, one in the Congregationalist, twelve in
secular business, and ten are dead. Some of those in secu-
lar business never received ordination.
In May, 1847, pursuant to a call issued by Rev. Dr.
Sawyer, as advised by prominent Universalist clergymen,
a meeting was held in the City of New York for the pur-
pose of discussing the question of establishing a college and
theological school. It was a meeting of representative
men of the denomination, who, after much earnest discus-
sion, decided that it was desirable to establish a college to
be "located in the Valley of the Hudson, or the Mohawk,"
and that "the wants of the denomination require the per-
manent establishment of a theological school, to be located.
by a committee" then chosen. The plan for a college was
pushed, with results to be mentioned presently; but the
effort in regard to a theological school languished until
taken up and forwarded by an educational society organ-
ized in 1852, at a session of the New York State Conven-
tion. Subscriptions amounting to a little more than $26,-
ooo having been obtained by November, 1854, a committee
was instructed to receive "applications from any place.
thought to be a suitable location for such an institution.”
Twelve applications with offers of local help were received,
and the committee decided on locating the school at Can-
ton, N. Y., which had offered a site of twenty acres of good
arable land valued at $3500, and to erect a suitable build-
S
my
PRE
COLLEGES.
491
ing at a cost of $11,500. The school was opened in April,
1858.
Tufts Divinity School, a department of Tufts College,
was opened in 1869.
A theological department, now called the Ryder Divinity
School, was opened in Lombard University in 1881.
Tufts College, located in Medford, Mass., was the chief
outcome of the discussions at the Educational Convention
in New York in 1847. It occupies the site originally pro-
posed for The Walnut Hill Evangelical Seminary, and is
named for the late Charles Tufts, the donor of the land.
His original gift was twenty acres, increased by subsequent
gifts to over one hundred acres. The college was char-
tered by the legislature in 1852, with power to grant every
kind of degrees usually given by colleges, "except medical
degrees." This restriction was removed in 1867. A med-
ical department was added to the college in 1893. Chief
among the benefactors of the college have been Charles
Tufts, Dr. William J. Walker, Dr. Oliver Dean, Mr. and
Mrs. Thomas J. Goddard, and Hon. P. T. Barnum.
A
Mag
Lombard University, located at Galesburg, Ill., grew
from an effort to establish" a high-school, to be owned,
taught, and controlled by liberal Christians." It was orig-
inally chartered in 1851, as the "Illinois Liberal Institute."
By an amendment of the charter in 1853, the institute be-
came a college. Amended again in 1857, it took the name
which it now bears, in honor of Mr. Benjamin Lombard,
at that time its-largest benefactor.
After it had been determined in 1856 to locate a theo-
logical school in Canton, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., it oc-
curred to the friends of the enterprise, that as no collegiate
institution existed in that section of the State, a college
might be established and sustained in connection with the
theological school. An Act of Incorporation was therefore
1
492
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
[CHAP. X.
t
obtained, bearing date April 3, 1856, giving legal existence
to the institution under the title of "The St. Lawrence
University," with power to establish a college and also a
theological school, the funds of each to be kept separate.
In April, 1859, a collegiate and preparatory department
was opened for students fitting for college, or pursuing an
advanced collegiate course. In 1865 the preparatory de-
partment was suspended and the college proper inaugu-
rated, and its first class was graduated.
In 1869 the Ohio Universalist Convention authorized
its board of trustees and committee on education to pro-
ceed to establish a college. A year later, after considering
several applications for the location of the proposed college,
it was voted that the institution be proffered to the city of
Akron, on condition that the citizens of Summit County
should legally secure to the State Convention $60,000.
In a short time the sum required had been exceeded by
several thousand dollars. Being duly incorporated in ac-
cordance with the provisions of a general act of the legis-
lature, the institution was named "Buchtel College," in
honor of its chief patron, Hon. John R. Buchtel, and was
opened for students in September, 1872.
These thirteen educational institutions are all open to
men and to women. They employ 154 professors and
teachers, have 1564 students, and possess property and
funds aggregating $3,981,037.
The Young People's Christian Union of the Universalist
Church was organized at Lynn, Mass., in 1889. Its ob-
ject is to unite the religious organizations of the young
people, which exist under various names, but most of them
as Young People's Christian Unions. Their purpose is
similar to that of the Societies for Christian Endeavor, the
King's Daughters, the Epworth League, and kindred or-
ganizations in the churches of other Christian denomina-
(A)
CONCLUSION.
493
tions-Christian culture and spiritual growth. A national
organizer is employed, and local organizers in several of the
States having State organizations. There are about 300
organizations in connection with local parishes or churches,
and a membership probably aggregating over 15,000.
With this brief mention of our youngest auxiliary, we
bring this imperfectly sketched history to a close. The
Universalist Church, whose story we have thus faintly out-
lined, is of American origin, taking its rise in the very
birthday of the new nation, and largely helped on in its
career by men foremost in the struggle for political liberty.
Its fundamental doctrines forbid its standing in any other
than a loyal attitude toward a government which cham-
pions for the world the rights of man. While it would not
immodestly boast, it can rightly claim that its constituency
has borne an honorable part in securing and perpetuating
the Union, that it has consistently championed the cause
of liberty, and that it greatly rejoices that in a land so
highly favored, it has been able to plant itself in proclaim-
ing to all the fullness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.
INDICES.
THE UNITARIANS.
Abbot, Abiel, 189.
Aconzio, Jacopo, 128.
Adam Pastor, 76, 77.
Adams, John, 175.
Adoptianism, I.
1
Aikenhead, Thomas, 144.
Albigenses, 2, 3, 26.
Alcott, Louisa M., 235.
Alziati, Paolo, 61.
Am. Unit. Association, 218.
Anabaptists, 3, 4, 47, 65, 93, 127.
Andover School, 189, 191.
Anniversary Week, 216.
Anthology Club, 191.
Antinomians, 3, 47, 127, 177.
Antioch College, 220.
Arianism, 2-5, 62, 67, 72, 91, 122, Bohemian Brethren, 75.
128, 138, 160, 180, 190.
Arminianism, 176, 177, 181.
Ashwell on Socinus, 72.
Association, 174; of Boston Minis-
|
ters, 178, 212-14; Am. Unit., 218.
Augsburg Conferences, 28, 29.
Augustinowitz, Paul, his bequest, 118.
Autumnal Convention, 217.
Bacon, 121, 126.
Bagshaw against Socinians, 130.
Bancroft, Aaron, 186.
Bellows, H. W., 223, 225, 232, 241.
Belsham, Thomas, 159-161, 192.
Bembo, cardinal, on Ochino, 16.
Benefit of Christ, 11, 13-15.
Bentley, William, 182, 183.
Berry Street Conference, 215.
Berthelier, opponent of Calvin, 42.
Bethlen Gabor, 114.
Beza, Theodore, 21, 61, 87.
Biddle, John, 131-135.
Birmingham riot, 158, 159.
Blackburne, archdeacon, 149.
Blandrata, 61, 62, 64, 65, 85, 104,
107; hostility to David, 110-112.
Blasphemy, law of, 128, 133, 144.
Bocskai, Stephen, 114.
|
Baptism, 3; Servetus, 44; in Poland,
65, 66, 76; in Transylvania, 66.
Baptists in England, 4, 122, 123, 147.
Barclay, Robert, 137.
Barnard, Thomas, 181.
Bathori, Christopher, 65, 110; Sigis-
mund, 113; Stephen, 83, 84, 110.
Baxter, Richard, 129.
Bolsec vs. Calvin, 53.
Boston Synod (1680), 173.
Boston Unitarianism, 187, 190, 194,
199, 202.
Bostwick on independency, 128.
Bowditch, Nathaniel, 184.
Bradford's "History," 170.
Briant, Lemuel, 175.
Brigham, Charles H., 232.
Bristol riot, 164.
Buckminster, J., 186; J. S., 187, 190.
Bull, George, on trinity, 138.
Bullinger, 51, 54, 55.
Burke, Edmund, 159.
Bury, Arthur, 139.
Calvin, 25, 38, 39, 40, 42, 47, 60, 61.
Calvinism as a power, 47, 58, 60; in
Transylvania, 97, 98, 108, 115.
Cambridge Platform, 173.
Cappe, Catherine, 150, 165.
Baxterians, 155.
Bayle on Socinians, 93; Socinus, 66. Caraffa, cardinal, 17, 79.
495
496
INDICES.
#
Farel, 38, 43.
Felix of Urgel, 1.
Firmin, Thomas, 133, 135.
Flaminio, Marcantonio, 11.
Fox, George, 137.
Free Religious Association, 228.
Freeman, James, 185, 186.
Frothingham, N. L., 203.
Fuller, Arthur B., 224.
Gannett, E. S., 199, 200, 204.
Gay, Ebenezer, 175, 179.
Gentile, Valentino, 62.
German Rationalism, 201, 209.
Goniondskť, 76.
Gonzaga, Giulia, 10, 16.
Great Awakening, 170, 176.
Gribaldo, Matteo, 61.
Half-way Covenant, 172, 173.
Hartley, 156..
Clarke, J. F., 227; Samuel, 142, 146. Harvard College, 181, 187.
Claude of Turin, 2.
Hedge, F. H., 229.
Carnesecchi, Pietro, 11, 16.
Carpenter, Lant, 161-164.
Channing, W. E., 190, 193, 195-199,
200, 212, 219; W. H., 233.
Charles II., consequences of his resto-
ration, 173.
Charles V., 6, 16.
Chauncy, Charles, 177.
Chewney, "Anti-Socinianism," 130.
Cheynell vs. Chillingworth, 125, 127.
Chillingworth, William, 125.
Christian Disciple,
>> 192; "Ex-
aminer," 192, 199, 200.
Christology of Valdes, 12; of Me-
lanchthon, 31; of Servetus, 23, 33,
44; of Socinus, 70, 72; of F. Da-
vid, 64, 111; of Belsham, 160; of
Channing, 190.
Civil War in U. S., 221.
Colonna, Vittoria, 11, 17.
Commerce, its effect in Salem, 184.
Conant, A. H., 223.
Consociation, 174, 189.
Cossacks in Poland, 84, 89.
Covenant, Half-way, 172; covenants
of New England churches, 170-172.
Cranmer, 10, 18.
Cromwell: Articles, 129, 130.
Cunningham, Francis, 201.
Dall, C. H. A., 238.
Davenant, Charles, cited, 142.
David, Francis, 63-65, 105-112.
Dedham case, 194.
Deistical Controversy, 146, 148.
Dewey, Orville, 203, 241.
Dissent in England, 147; terms
subscription, 148.
Dissenters' Chapels Act, 145, 153.
Divinity School (Harvard), 239.
Doddridge, 147, 160.
Edward VI., 18.
Eliot, W. G., 205, 241.
Elizabeth, 18, 121-123.
Emerson, R. W., 205–207.
Emlyn, Thomas, 143, 175.
Erasmus, 4, 8, 27.
Essex Street Chapel, 152, 153.
Familists, 127.
Edwards, John, 142; Jonathan, 176;
Thomas ("Gangræna "), 127.
Henchman legacy, 188, 189.
Henry VIII., 4, 18.
Henry of Valois in Poland, 82.
Heresies, medieval, 2, 3.
Hewley trust, 153.
Hill, Thomas, 233.
Hollis foundation, 188.
Howard, Simeon, 180.
Humanists, 4.
Hutchinson, Ann, 172.
Huxley on Priestley, 154, 158.
Improved version of New Testament,
161, 191.
Independents in England, 124, 126,
147.
Inquisition, 9, 12, 17, 40, 49, 56, 59.
of Italian Reformers, chap. i., 59; refu-
gees in Switzerland, 51, 54, 61.
Jagello, royal house of, 78-82.
Japan, work in, 239.
Jesuits in Poland, 86, 87; in Tran-
sylvania, 110.
Joan of Kent, 4.
John Casimir, 90.
John Sigismund, 63, 104-109.
Joseph II. of Austria, 117.
Ket, Francis, burned, 123.
King, Thomas Starr, 221.
King's Chapel, 185.
Knapp, F. N., 224,
Lardner, Nathaniel, 146, 157.
Laski (à Lasco), 18, 75.
Laud, archbishop, 124, 126.
Legate, Bartholomew, 123.
Leopoldine Compact, 116.
Lewes, John, burned, 122.
Lindsey, Theophilus, 149-152.
Locarno, exiles of, 54.
Locke, John, 142; Samuel (president
of Harvard College), 180.
Lowe, Charles, 231.
Lowell, John, 193.
Luther, 4, 29, 58.
Mann, Horace, 220.
Maria Theresa, 100, 116.
Martineau, James, 166–168, 247.
Martinengo, Celso, 52, 55.
Mary Tudor, 12; her prisons, 18.
Materialism (Priestley's), 157-
Mather, Increase, 174; Cotton, 176.
May, Samuel J., 204.
Mayhew, Thomas, 177; Jonathan,
178-180.
3.
"
INDICES.
·
Meadville Divinity School, 220.
Melanchthon, 1, 4, 15, 27, 29, 34,
38, 44, 49, 51, 53, 55, 106, 107.
Melius, Peter, 108.
Milton, 126, 127, 138.
Ministers' Institute, 232.
Morata, Olimpia, 11.
Morse, Jedediah, 188, 191, 192.
Murray, John, 182.
Myconius, his confession, 52.
Naked Gospel" (Bury), 139.
Naples in 1532, II.
National Conference, 225.
Necessarianism, 156.
133.
Owen, John, 25, 130.
Oxnard, of Portland, 186.
Paget, John, 118.
Pagitt, E., on Socinus, 128.
New England, antecedents in (chap.
viii.), 170-194.
New Unitarianism (ch. x.), 221-246.
Newman, F. W., 167.
Norton, Andrews, 207-209; John,
doctrine of atonement, 172.
Noyes, G. R., 209.
Oblivion, Act of, 134.
Ochino, B., 10, 16, 20-23, 55, 61, 77.
Ecolampadius, 30.
Ordinance of 1648 against heresy,
497
Pagnini's Bible, 36.
Paleario, Aonio, 12.
Paleologus, James, 109.
Park Street Church, 201.
Parker, Theodore, 210-214.
Peabody, A. P., 205, 241; E., 204.
Pearson, Eliphalet (professor in Har-
vard College), 187, 188.
Penn, William, 137.
Philpot, John, 19.
Pickering, Timothy, 181.
Pinczow, Synod of, 62, 85.
Poland, 53; chap. iv., 73-96.
Pole, cardinal, 12.
Polygamy, discussion of, 22.
Presbyterian party, 128, 136; Dis-
senters, 147, 152, 165.
Price, Richard, 152, 154, 156.
Priestley, Joseph, 154–159, 187.
Prince, John, 182.
Prisons, Queen Mary's, 19.
Protestant, the name, 28.
Przypkowski, S., 50, 92, 94.
Puritan, the name, 121, 124.
Putnam, George, 204, 241.
Pynchon, W., on redemption, 172.
Quakerism, 137.
Quintana, 28.
Racovian Catechism, 70, 88, 95.
Rakow (Racovia), 85; College, 88.
Reformation in 1575, 58.
Renata (Renée) of Ferrara, II, 17.
Ripley, George, 208.
Sabbatarians in Transylvania, 114.
Sabunda, Raymond de, 26.
Sacraments, doctrine of, 14, 29, 106,
205.
St. Abraham, Michael, 117.
Salem, liberalism in, 181-184.
Savoy Confession, 173.
Saybrook Platform, 174.
Servetus (chap. ii.), 6, 59, 61, 72.
Sherlock, W., on trinity, 140.
Sherman, John, 189.
Simultaneum, the, 115.
Socinian, the doctrine, 69-72; the
name, 85.
Socinians expelled from Poland, 91.
Socinus, L. and F. (chap. iii.), 44–72.
South, Robert, 140.
Sparks, Jared, 196.
Spirit, Biddle's doctrine of the, 132.
1
498
INDICES.
Spirit of the Pilgrims," 192, 200.
Stebbins, Rufus P., 220, 241.
Stephen Bathori, 80, 84, 110.
Strangers' Church, 18, 75.
Stuart, Moses, 197.
Szekely, Moses, 113.
Szeklers, 98-101.
Taylor, J. J., 168.
Three nations of Transylvania, 98.
Tillotson on Socinians, 95.
Toleration Act (1689), 139.
Torda, Diet of, 63.
Toulouse, 3, 26.
<<
Transcendentalism, 206.
Transylvania (chap. v.), 97-120.
Tuckerman, Joseph, 198.
Tyscowitz, barbarous execution of, 86.
Unitarian name, 63, 168, 192, 219.
Universalism, 180, 182, 199.
Usher, archbishop, 132.
Valdes, the brothers, 6; John, 8-15.
Vane, Sir Henry, 132.
Venice, suppression of heresy, 49.
Vergerio, P. P., 52, 55.
Academies and colleges, 485-492;
proselyting in, seventy-five years
ago, 484, 486.
Acrelius, Rev. Israel, finds Universal-
Vermigli, P. M., 10, 17, 18, 21,
Vicenza, society at, 49.
Vincent, Thomas, 137.
Vittoria Colonna, II, 17.
ists among the Moravians, 378.
"Acta Historica-Ecclesiastica," 332.
Adams, John G., D.D., his hymn-book
and hymn, 478, 479.
Waldenses, 2; in Calabria, 9; in
Poland, 74.
Walker, James, 203, 241.
Wallis, John, on trinity, 139.
Ware, H., 187; H., Jr., 199, 207.
Wasson, D. A., 228.
THE UNIVERSALISTS.
Watts, 147.
Weiss, John, 228.
Western Conference, 236.
Western Issue, the, 237.
Westminster Assembly, 126.
Whitby vs. Bull, 139.
Whitefield, 176, 177.
Wightman, Edw., burned, 123.
Willard (pres. H. C.), 181, 187.
Works, doctrine of, 15, 46.
Wyszowaty, 66, 91.
Zamoyski, John, 73, 81, 85.
Zapolya, John, 103.
Zwingli, 5.
259, 261, 262, 264, 265, 267, 269,
272, 274, 277, 280, 281.
"Appeal and Declaration," 454.
Articles of Faith adopted in 1790,
414; in 1794, 429; in 1803, 431;
the first interpreted against Unita-
rians, 417.
Athanasius, 280.
Atonement, Anselm's theory of, domi-
nant in America, 395; Murray's
preaching necessitates the substitu-
tion of Grotius's theory, 396; Rev.
Hosea Ballou's theory, 435-
August, Ernst, 332.
Augustine on early Universalists,
284.
Alabama, 440,
Albertus Magnus, 297.
Allen, Rev. Timothy, Congregation-
alist, 383.
Allin, Thomas, D.D., quotations from
his "Universalism Asserted," 279,
312.
Almaric of Bena, 297.
Ambrosius on Universalism in the Bacon, Rev. Henry, 481.
eighth century, 294.
Anabaptists, 308, 336.
"Ante-Nicene Fathers" quoted, 257, | Ballou, Rev. David, 427.
Baerensprung, Siegmund, 332.
Ballou, Rev. Barton, 485.
Ballou, Rev. Hosea, 427-436; adopts |
Unitarian sentiments, 429; becomes
a Universalist, 427; discussion with
Rev. Edward Turner, 444; with
editor of the "Boston Kaleido-
scope," 449; edits the " Universal-
ist Magazine," 449; great fairness
in controversy, 455; hymn-books
and hymns, 476, 478; Notes on
the Parables," 433; on committee
to draft "Articles of Relief," 430;
ordained, 428; reordained, 430; re-
fuses to settle in Boston during the
lifetime of Mr. Murray, 454; teaches
school, 428; theology, 435; " Trea-
tise on Atonement," 434; unites
with the Baptist Church, 427; views
on punishment, 434, 446, 450.
Ballou, Hosea, 2d, D.D., author of the
"Ancient History of Universalism,
280; quotations from, 266, 280, 283,
292, 295, 298, 304; edits the "Uni-
versalist Magazine," 453; "Expos-
itor, 472; Quarterly," 472;
hymns and hymn-book, 479; on
the future-punishment controversy,
447; president of the Historical So-
ciety, 470.
""
"
Ballou, Rev. Maturin, Baptist, 427.
Ballou, Silas, writes hymns and pub-
lishes a hymn-book, 475.
Baptist church in Philadelphia, Mr.
Winchester's connection with, 409;
its excommunicated members or-
ganize the "
Society of Universal
Baptists," and purchase a hall,
[{
INDICES.
410.
Baptists, many become Universalists
in 1790, 411.
Bar Sudaili, 291.
Barns, Rev. Thomas, 437.
Barnum, Hon. P. T., 491.
Basil, 280.
(7
Beecher, Edward, D.D., author of
History of Opinions on the Script-
ural Doctrine of Retribution," 283;
quoted, 284, 285, 286.
Beghards and Lollards, 298.
Belknap, Jeremy, D.D., 384.
Belsham, Rev. Thomas, 357.
Benedict's "History of the Baptists"
quoted, 411.
499
Benezet, Anthony, 408.
Bengel, Johann Albrecht, 310, note.
"Berleburger Bibel," the, 331.
Berlin "State and Literary Times,"
333.
Berrow, Rev. Capel, 352.
"Bibliotheca Sacra" on the influence
of John Murray on Calvinism, 396.
Binney, Mr., Congregationalist, 369.
Boehm, Jacob, 314.
Bohler, Rev. Peter, 378.
Boston, Mass., Mr. Murray's minis-
try in, 405; church in, publishes a
hymn-book, 475, 476; Sunday-
school in, 483.
"Boston Kaleidoscope," the, attacks
Universalism, 449.
Bourignon, Antoinette, 315.
Bowen, Henry, 453.
Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spir-
it, 299.
Brethren of the Common Lot, 299.
Briggs, Rev. Levi, 454.
British Museum, recent works on
Eschatology in, 370.
Buchtel, Hon. John R., and Buchtel
College, 492.
Burnet, Dr. Thomas, 324-328.
California, 442.
Calvinism, Rev. John Murray's influ-
ence on, 395-
“Calvinism Improved,” 385.
Campbell, Rev. John McLeod, 359.
Canada, 443.
Canton Theological School, 490.
Carey, Matthew, Roman Catholic,
482.
Carpenter, Lant, LL.D., 357.
Case, Mrs. L. J. B., 481.
Cassianus, Johannes, 288.
Cate, Rev. I. W., 469.
Chambré, A. St. John, D.D., 458.
Channing, W. E., D.D., Unitarian,
456.
Chapin, Edwin H., D.D., his hymn-
book and hymn, 479, 480.
"Charter of Compact," adopted by
Universalists, 404.
Chauncy, Charles, D.D., 382; his
writings in advocacy of Universal-
ism, 383.
Cheyne, Dr. George, 342.
500
INDICES.
:
.
"Children's Sunday," 484.
"Christian Leader," the, 472.
Clarke, John, D.D., 383.
Clarke, Rev. Richard, 379.
Clarke, Samuel, D.D., 342.
Clement of Alexandria, 259-262.
Clinton Liberal Institute, 487.
Coffin, Rev. Michael, 438.
Cogan, Thomas, M.D., 357.
College, efforts to establish, 490.
Cone, O., D.D., on Theodoret, 290.
Congregationalist," the, Boston,
""
369.
Congregationalists and Universalists
pronounced one sect by New Hamp-
shire courts, 432.
Congregationalists,
n
Universalism
among the English, 368; among
the American, 382.
Connecticut, 437.
Conrad, John, 331.
Coppin, Rev. Richard, 317.
Cox, Rev. Nicholas, 411.
Crellius, Rev. Samuel, 336.
Cremer, R., 337.
"Critical Review," the, 356.
Crombie, Alexander, LL.D., 359.
Cuppe, Pierre, 339.
D'Aranda, Peter, 304.
D'Marsay, Count, 331; his commen-
tary on the Apocalypse, 376.
Dakota, 443.
Dale, Rev. R. W., Congregationalist,
368.
Davenant, Bishop John, 315.
Dean, Dr. Oliver, 488, 489, 491.
Dean, Rev. Paul, 399; Restoration-
ist leader, 454.
Dean Academy, 488.
De Benneville, George, M.D., 375.
Dedication of children, 484.
"
*
Denk, Hans, 309.
Dialogues on the General Restitu-
tion of the Creation," 322.
285.
Domitian, 292.
Didymus the blind, 279.
Diodorus, 282.
Dippel, Christian, 331.
Ditelmair, testifies to spread of Uni-
versalism, 329.
Doederlin on early Universalists,
Dorner, on Denk and Hetzer, 309;
on Theodore of Mopsuestia, 285.
Douglass, Rev. Niel, 341.
Duché, Rev. Jacob, 380.
Dunkers, the, 331, 378, 441, 482.
Earbury, William, 317.
'Eastern Association," 437.
Eberhard, John Augustine, 336.
Eckhart, Henry, mystical pantheist,
"C
299.
Eckley, Rev. Joseph, Congregation-
alist, 383.
Edgarton, Sarah C., 481.
Education, 484–492.
Edwards, Rev. Thomas, his Gan-
græna," 316.
""
England, Universalism in, 342.
English Congregationalists, 368.
Episcopalians, Universalists among
the, 379; the American change the
seventeenth of the Thirty-nine Ar-
ticles, eliminate words from the
Apostles' Creed, and object to the
Nicene and the Athanasian creeds,
380.
Erasmus, publishes the works of Ori-
gen, 312.
Erigena, John Scotus, 295.
Erskine, Thomas, 358.
Estlin, John Prior, LL.D., 357-
Eusebius, 278.
Evans, Rev. David, 411.
"Everlasting Gospel, The," by Sieg-
volck (George Klein Nicolai), 330,
333, 376, 408; by Schaeffer, 331,
376; attacked by Rev. N. Pomp,
377.
Facundus, 291.
Farewell, Rev. William, 439.
Ferris, Rev. Walter, committee to
draft a "Form of Fellowship in
Faith and Practice," 430.
Ferriss, Rev. Edwin, 438.
Fessenden, Rev. Thomas, 386.
Fifth General Council, the, did not
condemn Origen's Universalism,
292; doubtful if it was ecumenical,
293.
First-Day or Sunday-school Society,
482.
Flagg, Rev. Joshua, 439.
Fletcher, Julia A., 481.
2.
INDICES.
Florida, 440.
Foster, Rev. Dan, 386.
Foster, Mr., edits the "Universalist | Groot, Gerhard, 299.
Magazine," 453.
"
Foster, Rev. J. H., Ph.D., on The
Eschatology of the New England
Divines," 397.
Foster, Rev. Joel, Congregationalist,
446.
Foster, Rev. John, Baptist, his moral
argument against endless punish-
ment, 363.
Fox, Rev. William J., a successor to
Winchester, 354-
France, Universalism in, 339, 341.
Frederick the Great on complaints
against the preaching of Universal-
ism, 338.
"Free Universal Magazine," 471.
Free-will, Origen on its being no bar
to universal salvation, 275.
French Protestants, 340.
Georgia, 440.
Gerhard, Ludwig, 331.
German hymn-book, 479.
German Rationalism, attitude toward,
491.
Goddard Seminary, 488.
"Golden Rose, The," 331, 376.
Gordon, Rev. William, Congregation-
alist, 383.
Gorton, Samuel, 372.
44
Gospel Visitant," the, 446.
Green Mountain Perkins Academy,
488.
Gregory Nazianzen, 280.
Gregory of Nyssa, 280.
Gregory Thaumaturgus, 276.
Griffiths, Dr. Ralph, 355.
Gruner, John Frederick, 336.
Hahn, Michael, 336.
Halcyonists, the, 442.
Halifax, N. S., 443.
"Harleian Miscellany, The," 346.
Hartley, Dr. Samuel, 348.
Haug, John Henry, 331.
Hazard, Ebenezer, 384.
Hetzen, Ludwig, 309.
Higher Criticism, The," 467.
Hilary, 280.
Hochman, Ernest Christoph, 331.
Holland, Universalism in, 336.
Holy Cub, The," Universalism dis-
cussed in, 351.
("
[C
Huntington, Rev. Dr. Joseph, his
Calvinism Improved," 385.
Hymn-books and hymns, 473–481.
Idaho, 443.
467.
Illinois, 441; protest of the conven-
Germany, Universalism in, 298, 308, tion, 465.
309, 328, 330, 333, 336.
Indiana, 441.
Giesler, on early Universalists, 284; Iowa, 441.
on Origen's Universalism not con- Japan Mission, 469.
demned by a General Council, 292. Jerome, 265, 280.
Gloucester, Mass., 390; Articles of John of Goch, 301.
Association, 399; builds a meeting-Jonas, Justus, 309.
house, 400; Charter of Compact, Jones, Rev. Thomas, 416.
404; church organized, 416; law- Kansas, 442.
suit with first parish, 401; impor- Kentucky, 441.
tance of decision of suit to all other
sects, 403; Mr. Murray's labors
in, 399; Sunday-school in, 483.
Goddard, Thomas A., and wife, 488,
Hopkins, Rev. Samuel, Congrega-
tionalist, 383.
Huber, Marie, 338.
Hudson, Rev. Charles, 454.
501
"(
Lane, Oliver Wellington, committee
on Boston hymn-book, 476; starts
the first Sunday-school in Boston,
483.
Law, Rev. William, 349.
Lead, Jane, 320.
Lindsey, Rev. Theophilus, 357.
Livermore, Mrs. Mary A., her hymn,
480.
Lollards, the, 298.
Lombard, Benjamin, and Lombard
University, 491.
Luther, Martin, on eternal punish-
ment, 306.
Mack, Alexander, 331.
502
INDICES.
3
Macrina, 282.
Maine, 436.
Mann, Rev. Jacob, 386.
Marcellus, 279.
Marshall, Christopher, 408.
Massachusetts, 437.
Massachusetts
Association of Uni-
versal Restorationists, 455.
Mather, Dr. Cotton, on Samuel Gor-
ton, 372; on Sir Henry Vane, 374
Mather, Rev. Samuel, Congregation-
alist, 383.
Matthews, William, 352.
Maurice, Rev. Frederick Denison,
359.
Maximus the Confessor, 293.
Mayhew, Rev. Jonathan, 384.
McDonald, Rev. George, 367.
McLean, Rev. Duncan, 411.
Mead, Rev. Samuel, 386.
"Men of Understanding," 303.
Merlau, Johanna Eleonora von, 328,
377.
Methodius, 276.
Michigan, 441.
Miner, A. A., D.D., LL.D., 458, 470.
Minnesota, 442.
Mississippi, 442.
Missouri, 441.
Mitchell, Rev. Edward, 399.
Montana, 443.
"Monthly Review," the, its attitude
toward Universalism, 355.
Moor, Rev. Clark R., 458.
Moravians, the, 378.
More, Sir Thomas, his "" Utopia,"
313.
Mosheim, John Lawrence von, D.D.,
"
his tribute to Origen, 263; on Chris-
tian mysteries, 276; on Men of
Understanding," 304; on John Pi-
cus, 404; his defense of the doctrine
of eternal punishment, 329; replies
to his defense, 329, 330, 334.
Murray, Rev. John, 388-407; adopts
an aggressive policy, 392; arrives in
America, 388, 389; at the Associa-
tion in 1785, 404; at the Convention
in 1790, 411; in 1793, 1795, 1804,
399; brings suit against the first
parish in Gloucester, 402; centen-
nial observance of his first sermon
|
in America, 468; chaplain of the
Rhode Island brigade, 400; decis-
ion of his suit against the first par-
ish, 403; education and mental abil-
ities, 406; his death, 406; his the-
ology, 392; hymn-writer, 473; in-
fluence on Calvinism, 395; influence
on the spread of Universalism, 397;
jealous of Universalism that had
not a Rellyan basis, 423; justifies
his non-avowal of Universalism,
391; ministry in Gloucester, 400;
ministry in Boston, 405; opposed
to water baptism, 416; ordination,
405; personal relations with Win-
chester, 422; place in the esteem of
the Universalist Church, 406; Rel-
lyan Universalist, 392; republishes
the Relly hymn-book, 473; Rev.
Dr. Stiles's attack on his character,
406; standing alone in his Rellyan-
ism, 398; visits England, 405.
Murray Centenary Fund, 468.
Mursinna, Samuel, 336.
Neander, Augustus, D.D., on the
Universalism of Marcellus, 279; of
Gregory Nyssen, 281; of Theodore
of Mopsuestia, 285; of Johannes
Cassianus, 288; of Bar Sudali, 291;
on Universalist theological schools
in the fourth century, 284; on Ori-
gen's not being condemned by a
General Council, 292.
Nebraska, 442.
Nestorian Church, Universalism in its
sacramental liturgy, 287.
New Brunswick, 443.
New England Convention. See Uni-
versalist Convention.
New Hampshire, 437; courts rule that
Universalists and Congregational-
ists are the same, 432; legislature
declares Universalists a distinct sect,
432.
New Jersey, 439.
Newton, Sir Isaac, 342.
Newton, Bp. Thomas, 350.
New York, 438.
"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers "
quoted, 265, 266, 269, 280, 281,
282, 289.
Nichols, Amasa, 485.
Nichols Academy, 485.
Nicolai, George Klein, 330, 376.
North Dakota, 443.
"Notes on the Parables," 433.
Nova Scotia, 443.
INDICES.
and punishments, 344.
Olshausen's tribute to Universalism,
Ohio, 440.
Old Testament doctrine of rewards Pope, Alexander, 345.
371.
Ontario, 443.
Open Gates of the Heart," 315.
Ordination, Vermont law and rule of,
430; New England Convention rule
in regard to, 433-
Oregon, 442.
Origen, 263-276; Erasmus publishes
his works, 312; foundation of his
philosophy, 263; his Universalism
not condemned by a General Coun-
cil, 292; Jerome's opposition to,
265; misrepresented by Rufinus,
265, 266; reply to Celsus, 271-274;
teaches that free-will is no barrier
to universal salvation, 275.
Oxford, Mass. See Universalist As-
sociation.
((
Pamphilus, 277.
Parker, Rev. Noah, 398.
Parr, Dr. Samuel, 347.
Penn, William, Quaker, intimacy of,
with German Universalists, 377.
Pennsylvania, 376, 449.
Perin, George L., D.D., 469.
Peters, Rev. Samuel, Episcopalian,
381.
|
Petersen, John William, 300, 320, 322,
328, 330.
Petitpierre, Ferdinand Oliver, 338.
Philadelphia Baptist Association and
Rev. Elhanan Winchester, 409;
spread of Universalism in, 411.
Philadelphia Convention. See Uni-
versalist Convention.
503
salism condemned in the Forty-two
Articles, A.D. 1552, 312.
Polity of the Universalist Church,
461-468.
"
Philadelphia Magazine," 354,
Philadelphia Universalists organize as
"Universal Baptists," 410.
Philadelphia Universalist Sunday-
school, 483.
Pomp, Rev. N., writes against Uni-
versalism, 376.
Pope Gregory II. gives instructions
against Universalism, 294.
Postell, William, 313.
Potter, Thomas, 389;
Church for, 439-
Presbyterian Alarm, 386.
Priestley, Dr. Joseph, 419.
Protestant theory of retribution as ab-
sent from this life and reserved for
the future, 456.
Punishment, attitude of Universalists
in regard to, 458; extreme views
of, 457.
Purves, Rev. James, 341.
Quebec, Province of, 443.
Ramsay, Andrew Michael, 343-
Raymond of France, 296.
Relly, Rev. James, 348; his theology,
392*
Relly, James and John, their hymn-
book, 473.
Restorationists, 444-456; secession
of, a great mistake, 455; their
policy, 453.
Reuz [Rights or Wright], Rev. Mat-
thew, 379.
Rewards and punishments, Old Testa-
ment doctrine of, 344.
Rhode Island, 437.
<<
Rice, Rev. Clarence E., 469.
Rich, Rev. Caleb, 423; ordination,
425; organizes a General Souci-
ety," 425; religious experiences,
424; reordained, 430; theology of,
426, 446.
Richards, Rev. George, a hymn-writer,
476; committee on Boston hymn-
book, 476; on Mr. Murray's' atti-
tude in convention, 399; prepares
and publishes a hymn-book, 476.
Richardson, Rev. Samuel, 317.,
Rights. See Reuz, Rev. Matthew.
Ritter, Heinrich, on the Universalism
of Maximus, 294.
Picus, John, 304.
Plan of this history, 255.
Plumptre, E. H., D.D., on Univer- Roach, R., 343.
Memorial
L
504
INDICES.
Rogers, Rev. George, 442; his hymn- | Sears, Professor Barnas, on Univer-
book, 479.
salism in Germany, 336.
Serarius, Peter, 320.
Sibylline oracles, the, 256.
Sieglvock, Paul. See Nicolai, George
Klein.
<<
Rufinus, his translation of Origen's
De Principiis," 265; his misrep-
resentations, 265, 269.
Rush, Dr. Benjamin, arranges the Ar-
ticles and Plan of the Philadelphia
Convention, 413; assists in organ-
ization of Sunday-school Society,
482; becomes an Arminian and
confesses obligations to Rev. Mr.
Fletcher, 412; becomes a Univer-
salist and urges Mr. Winchester to
go on a mission to England, 413;
correspondence with Mr. Winches-
ter, 413; eulogizes Rev. John Wes-
ley, 413; on Mr. Winchester's later
preaching, 420.
Ruysbroek, John, 299.
Safford, O. F., D.D., 458.
Sarjent, Rev. Abel, 446; edits the
"Free Universal Magazine," 471;
puts forth a Unitarian-Universalist
Creed, 417.
Sawyer, Mrs. Caroline M., her hymn,
480.
Sawyer, Thomas J., D.D., committee
on views of Universalists in regard
to punishment, 458; on organiza-
tion, 463–465; principal of Clinton
Liberal Institute and teacher in
theology, 489; quotations from his
historical papers, 301, 308, 314,
320, 322, 332-336; secretary of
Universalist Historical Society,
470; urges the importance of col-
leges and theological schools, 489,
490.
Say, Thomas, 408.
Scarlett, Nathaniel, 354-
Schaeffer, David, 330, 376.
Schaff, Philip, D.D., LL.D., his
writings referred to or quoted, 293,
294, note, 296, 308, 309.
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopædia, referred
to or quoted, 304, 310, note, 344,
358.
Schlitte's review of Mosheim, 335-
Schouler, Miss M. C., 469.
Schuetz, Christopher, 331, 376.
Scotland, Universalism in, 341.
Seagrave, Rev. Artis, 410, 411; his
convention hymn, 475.
Smalley, Rev. John, Congregational-
ist, 396.
Smith, Sir James Edward, 361, 481.
Smith, Rev. Stephen R., his
C His-
torical Sketches," 439, note; his
labors in founding the Clinton Lib-
eral Institute, 487.
Smith, T. Southwood, M.D., 341.
Smith, Dr. William, 380.
Smollett, Dr. Tobias, 356.
"
Society of Universal Baptists," 410;
merged in "The First Independent
Church of Christ," 417.
Solomon, Bishop of Bassorah, 297.
South Carolina, 440.
Sprague, Wm. B., D.D., on Rev.
Joseph Huntington, D.D., and his
Universalism, 385.
St. Lawrence University, 492.
Stacy, Rev. Nathaniel, 438.
State Conventions, funds of, 468.
Steinhart, Gottfried, 336.
Stilling, Jung, 336.
Stonehouse, Sir George, 350, 356;
his distinction between salvation
and restoration, 352.
Streeter, Rev. Barzillai, 454.
Sunday-schools, 482, 483.
Switzerland, Universalism in, 338.
Taft, Rev. Mr., of Langdon, N. H.,
386.
Tauler, John, 300.
Taylor, Rev. John, Congregationalist
missionary, 438.
Tennessee, 442.
Texas, 442.
Thacher, Rev. Peter, Congregation-
alist, 383.
Thayer, Thomas B., D.D., on the
Sibylline oracles, 258, note; on
Theodoret, 291.
Theodore of Mopsuestia, 285.
Theodoret, Bishop of Cyrus, 288.
Theological schools in the fourth cent-
ury, 283; attempts to establish, in
America, 489; Dr. Sawyer's, at
Clinton, 489; at Canton, N. Y.,
}
490; in Japan, 469; Ryder Divin-
ity School, 491; Tufts Divinity
School, 491.
Theophilus, Bishop of Antioch, 258.
Theosophic Heart Devotions," 332.
Thom, Rev. David, 361.
Thomas, Rev. Abel C., his "Century
of Universalism," 408; hymn and
tune book, 478.
Throop, Hon. A. G., and Throop
Polytechnic Institute, 488.
Titus, Bishop of Bostra, 280.
Tomlinson, Charles W., D.D., 357,
note.
Townshend, Rev. Chauncey Hare,
367.
Tufts, Charles, 489, 491.
Tufts College, 491.
Turner, Rev. Edward, associated with
Rev. H. Ballou in preparing hymn-
books, 476, 477; discusses question
of future punishment with Rev. H.
Ballou, 444; Restorationist leader,
454.
Tyler, Rev. John, Episcopalian, a
Rellyan author, 381.
Ueberweg on the Universalism of
Maximus, 294.
Ullman, Dr. C., on the theology of
John of Goch, 301; quotations from
his "Reformers before the Refor-
mation," 299-303.
Unitarian opposition to Universalism,
449, 456.
Unitarian societies in England, Uni-
versalism of, 354.
Unitarian Universalists, 357, 417,
429.
""
INDICES.
505
("
283; v., 285-291; vi. and vii.,
293; viii., 294; ix., 295; xiii.,
297; xiv., 298, 301; xv., 303;
xvi., 306-310, 312; xvii., 315-328;
xviii., 328-357; xix., 357-371; in
America, 372-493; in England,
294, 297-303, 306, 308, 310, 328-
336; France, 339; Germany, 294,
297-303, 306, 308, 310, 328-336;
Holland, 320, 336; Scotland, 341;
Switzerland, 338; United States
and British provinces, 372-493; in
the Critical Review," 356; the
Monthly Review," 355; its at-
titude toward slavery, 416; its
spread alarms the Presbyterians,
386; laws condemnatory of, in
England in 1552, 311; not regarded
as heretical in the Church of Eng-
land since 1562, 312; of Rev. Ho-
sea Ballou, 434; Charles Chauncy,
D.D., 382; Dr. Alexander Crom-
bie, 359; Dr. George De Benne-
ville, 375; Thomas Erskine, 358;
Samuel Gorton, 372; David Hart-
ley, 348; John Henderson, 353;
Joseph Huntington, D.D., 385;
Rev. William Law, 350; William
Matthews, 352; Rev. George
McDonald, 367; Rev. John Mur-
ray, 392; Bishop Newton, 350;
Rev. Caleb Rich, 426; Sir George
Stonehouse, 350; Rev. David
Thom, 361; Rev. Chauncey Hare
Townshend, 367; Rev. John Ty-
ler, 381; Sir Henry Vane, 374;
Rev. Elhanan Winchester, 421;
Olshausen's tribute to, 371; pen-
alty for holding, in seventeenth cent-
ury, 316; Pomp, Rev. N., on the
spread of, in Pennsylvania, 377-
Universalist Association organized at
Oxford, Mass., in 1785, 404; object
of, 403; not long in existence, 405;
recommends form of organization
for societies, 404.
Universalist Convention organized at
Philadelphia in 1790, 411; adopts
Articles of Faith and Plan of
Church Government, 414; holds no
session after 1809, 419; publishes
a hymn-book, 475; receives and
grants requests for organizing con-
Unitarian-Universalist Creed, 417.
Universalism among the Congrega-
tionalists, 368, 382-386; the
Dunkers, 331, 378, 441; the Epis-
copalians, 379-382; the Millenari-
ans, 331; the Moravians, 378; the
Unitarians, 354, 357; attacked by
the "Boston Kaleidoscope," 449;
condemned in the Forty-two Articles
of 1552, 311; condemnation ig-
nored in Thirty-nine Articles of
1562, 312; author's "History of, in
America," referred to, 408, 433,
455, 471; defined, 255; in the ii.
century, 256; iii., 263; iv., 277-
(C
506
INDICES.
ventions in New England and at
the West, 418; recommends the
establishing of schools, 415; recom-
mendation against slavery, 416;
Rellyans in the minority in, and
generosity of the majority toward
them, 416.
Universalist Convention organized in
1793 as the "New England Con-
vention," 428; adopts Articles of
Faith and Plan of Philadelphia Con-
vention, 429; adopts "The Win-
chester Profession of Belief," 431;
becomes The General Convention
of the New England States and
others," 433; becomes "The Gen-
eral Convention of Universalists of
the United States," 462; attempts
to perfect uniform organization,
461-468; definite and effective pol-
ity adopted, 468; its deliverance on
the Bible as containing a special
revelation, 466; its foreign-mission-
ary work, 469; its funds, 468,
Universalist Convention organized at
"
"(
Morganstown, Pa., in 1793, 419.
"Universalist Expositor," 472.
Universalist Historical Society, 470.
Universalist hymns and hymn-books,
473-481.
Universalist literature, 471.
Universalist Magazine," 449, 453,
472.
Universalist ministers of Boston and
vicinity on the question of punish-
ment for sin, 458.
"Universalist Miscellany," 354.
Universalist mission to Japan, 465.
Universalist Publishing House, 472.
"Universalist Quarterly," 472; re-
ferred to or quoted, 258, note, 290,
295, 297, note, 306-308, 313, 315,
324.
|
Universalist State Conventions, 436-
443.
Universalist Sunday-schools, 483.
Vane, Sir Henry, 373.
Vermont, 437; laws and usage in re-
lation to ordination, 430.
Victorinus, 280.
{
Voss, Jacob, 334.
Walker, Dr. William J., 491.
"Walnut Hill Evangelical Semi-
nary," 489.
Warburton, Bp. William, 344.
Washington, 443.
Washington, D.C., 443.
Wesley, Rev. John, Methodist, 351.
Wessel, John, 300.
West Virginia, 442.
Westbrook Seminary and Female Col-
lege, 487.
Western Association organized and
visited, 439.
Whiston, Rev. William, 333, 342.
White, Rev. Jeremy, 318.
White, Bp. William, 482.
Whitefield, Rev. George, his warning
to Rev. John Wesley, 378.
Whiting, Rev. Samuel, 386.
Whittemore, Thomas, D.D., 447.
William of Hildesheim, 304.
Winchester, Rev. Elhanan, 353, 408-
413; correspondence with Dr. Rush,
413; his abilities, 420; hymn-book,
474; theology, 421; influence of
Universalist writings on, 409; pas-
tor of Baptist church in Philadel-
phia, 409; ministry in England,
353; preaches at ordination of Rev.
Hosea Ballou, 428; returns to Amer-
ica, 419; sickness and death, 420;
writings, 353, 420.
Winchester, Rev. Moses, 411.
"Winchester Profession of Belief,"
tradition as to cause of its adoption,
431; acceptable to all, 432.
Winstanley, Gerard, 316.
Wisconsin, 441.
Woelner, 333-
Wolf, Rev. George, 441.
Woman's Centenary Association, 469.
Women's State Missionary Associa-
tions, 470.
Wood, Rev. Jacob, 447, 448, 454.
Worrall, Rev. William, 341.
Worth, Rev. William, 411.
Wright, Rev. Richard, 357.
Yancey, Rev. Robert, Episcopalian,
379.
Vidler, Rev. William, 354.
Young, Rev. Joab, 428, 438.
Viscountess of Conway, the, 322, 377. | Young People's Christian Union, 492.
BY SUBSCRIPTION,
Vol. I.
Vol. II.
Vol. III.
Vol. IV.
Vol.
The American Church History Series.
Vol. VIII.-
Vol. IX.
V. Methodists,
M
Vol. X.-
Vol. VI.
Presbyterians, .
REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D.,
New York.
Vol. VII. Protestant Episcopal,
Reformed Church, Dutch, Rev. E. T. CORWIN, D.D.,
Rector Hertzog Hall, New Brunswick, N.J.
Reformed Church, German, Rev. J. H. DUBBS, D.D.,
Capt
Vol. XI.-
1
The Religious Forces of the United States, H. K. CARROLL, LL.D.,
Editor of The Independent, Supt. Church Statistics, U. S. Census, etc.
Baptists,
REV. A. H. NEWMAN, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Church History, McMaster
University of Toronto, Ont.
REV. WILLISTON WALKER, Ph.D.,
Professor of Modern Church History,
Theological Seminary, Hartford, Conn,
REV. H. E. JACOBS, D.D., LL.D.,
Professor of Systematic Theology in the
Ev. Lutheran Seminary, Phila., Pa.
REV. J. M. BUCKLEY, D.D., LL.D.,
Editor of the New York Christian
Advocate.
Congregationalists,
Lutherans,
Moravian,
A
Roman Catholics, .
Unitarians,
Universalists,
M. E. Church, So.,
Presbyterians, So.,.
·
United Presbyterians,
Cumb. Presbyterians,
Disciples,
Friends,
Vol. XII.- United Brethren,
Ev. Association,
•
Bibliography,.
•
IN TWELVE VOLUMES, AT $2.50 PER VOLUME
·
>
Rev. Robert ELLIS THOMPSON, D.D.,
Philadelphia, Pa.
Professor of History, Franklyn and
Marshall College, Lancaster, Pa.
REV. J. T. HAMILTON, D.D.,
Professor of Church History, Theological
Seminary, Bethlehem, Pa.
REV. T. O'GORMAN, D.D.,
Professor of Church History, Catholic
¡University, Washington, D. C.
REV. J. H. ALLEN, D.D.,
Late Lecturer on Ecclesiastical History,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
REV. RICHARD EDDY, D.D.,
•
Providence, R. I.
Rev. GROSS ALEXANDER, D.D.,
Professor Greek and N. T. Exegesis,
Nashville, Tenn.
REV. THOMAS C. JOHNSON, D.D.,
Professor Ecclesiastical History and
Polity, Hampden-Sidney, Va.
REV. JAMES B. SCOULLER, D.D.,
Newville, Pa.
REV. R. V. FOSTER, D.D.,
Professor Biblical Exegesis, Cumberland
University, Lebanon, Tenn.
REV. R. B. TYLER, D.D., New York.
(Prof. A. C. THOMAS, M.A.,
Haverford College, Haverford, Pa.
R. H. THOMAS, M.D., Baltimore, Md.
Rev. D. BergeR, D.D., Dayton, Ohio.
REV. S. P. SPRENG,
Editor Evangelical Messenger, Cleve-
land, Ohio.
Rev. SAMUEL MACAULEY JACKSON,
New York.
C
"
;

!
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 01234 9026

་་,,་