2. The Reformation reveals Unitarianism existing, and awakens it to renewed life. It accompanied Prot- estantism from its cradle, as it had accompanied primi- tive Christianity. Before Luther's death it had ap- peared in Italv, Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, Ger- many, and England. In the contest with the pope and his hierarchy, the majority of Protestants, absorbed in the struggle for freedom, accepted, unchallenged, as their hereditary belief, the substance of doctrine of the Romish Church. Yet in every Protestant confession the doc- trine of the Trinity is reiterated as if on the defensive; while the testimonies of Calvin, Melancthon, and oth- ers against the Unitarian heresy reveal its strength. Among the manj' who, before and after the Eeforma- tion, bore witness to their faith in persecution and death, Unitarianism has its own list of confessors and martyrs. In bishop Mant's History of Ireland is a brief account of Adam Duff, who for his denial of the Trinity was burned alive, near Dublin, in 132G. The earlj' theolog- ical repositories make record of a priest, William Tay- lour, put to death as an Arian, in fjigland, in 1422.
Conspicuous among the Reformers were the Unitari- ans Servetus and the Socini. Jlichael Servetus, born in Villanueva, Aragon, in 1509, the year of Calvin's birth, while studying law at Toulouse, heard of the con- test, left his home and his profession, and sought the Reformers Qicolampadius, at Basle, Bucer and Capito, at Strasburg, and Calvin, at Paris. His bold genius pushed past them in seeking a rejuvenated Christiani-
ty. Skilled in mathematics and the Oriental languages, in law, medicine, and theology, his fearless spirit of in- quiry and eager thirst for truth gave the highest interest to his religious speculations. "Your trinity," he de- clares, " is a product of subtlety and madness. The Gos- pel knows nothing of it. The old fathers are strangers to these vain distinctions. It is from the school of (ireek sopliists that you, Athanasius, prince of trithe- ists, have borrowed it." Such sentiments provolced bit- ter hostility. Zwingli denounced him as " that wicked and cursed Spaniard ;" Calvin spoke of him as the "fran- tic" Servetus, who "has thrown all things into confu- sion." When Servetus published his Seven Books on the Ei-rors of the Trinity, and his more noted work on the Restoration of Christianity, severely criticising Cal- vin's views, his doom was scaled. On his flight from persecutors at Yienne, as he stopped at Geneva, Calvin caused his arrest and trial. The flames of Protestant persecution dismissed into eternity, through frightful agony, this brave soul that dared assert the absolute unity of God. The leading Reformers expressed no re- gret, but silently or openly approved it. See Servetus.
Lielius Socinus, born in Siena in 1525, of distinguished ancestry, familiar with Biblical languages, an able critic, a member of the famous Vicenza Secret Religious Socie- ty of Forty, on their dispersal fled to France, England, Poland, and at last to Zurich, where he died at the age of thirty-seven. A student rather than reformer or controversialist, he yet left behind him a deep impress of his free and original thought. His nephew, Faustus Socinus, born also in Siena in 1539, was expelled from Italy at twenty, studied at Basle, visited Poland and Transylvania, where, carrying forward his uncle's thought and work until his death in 1G04, he became the more active and noted leader of Socinianism (q. v.).
Less conspicuous, but with these, may be named in German}', Ccllarius, Capito, Johann Denk, Sebastian Frank, and the scholarly Ludwig Hetzer, one of the ear- liest, who, for writing against the Deity of Christ, was imprisoned by the magistrates of Constance, and suffer- ed death in 1529 ; also Claudius of Savoy, George Blan- drata in Transylvania, Gonesius and Farnovius in Po- land, Stephen Dolet, friend and disciple of Servetus, who, at the age of thirty-seven, was tried for heresy and burned alive in Paris in 154G; and John Yalentine Gentilis, who preached in France and Switzerland, and suffered death at Berne in 1566, saying, as he laid his head on the block, " IMany have suffered for the glory of the Son, but none have died for the glory and su- premacy of the Father."
3. In Italy, before the Reformation, the doctrine of the Trinity encountered dissent, the advocates of which were driven from the country, or were attracted by the larger freedom farther North. Thus went forth many to Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, and Poland ; among whom were the famous Socini and the celebrated preacher Bernardo Occhino. Hundreds also were put to death, among whom were James Palax)logus, burned at Rome, and Sega and Guirlanda, drowned at Yenice. It was in this interest of reforming the faith that the society was formed in Yicenza, of forty persons of tal- ents and learning, discarding the Trinity, meeting in secret, of whom, after 1546, many were imprisoned and others suffered death. From that time there has been no recognised or organized Unitarian body of any strength in Italy, although it is believed there are many who hold this faith. The advocate IVlagnani has for years conducted Unitarian service at Pisa. The astronomer Filopanti has lectured in Bologna, Milan, Rome, and Naples upon Channing, the distinguished American Unitarian leader, of whom further mention will be made below. Professor Ferdinando Bracci- forti has translated Channing's works into Italian, and has for years conducted Unitarian service at Florence and at Reggio. Professor Sbarbaro, in the Rivista Europa of October, 1879, argues that Channing sup- plies the form and spirit of the religion needed by the