congregation in Suffolk, and a conspicuous champion of the humanitarian theology. Believing in the Bible as a divine revelation, and in the miracles as creden- tials of Christ's authority, while continuing to hold some tenets of Calvinism, he rejected the Trinity and vicarious atonement as unscriptural, wrote to show liow these dogmas came in as later corruptions of primitive Christianity, and held that Christ himself claiircd to be simply a man. His views brought upon him oblo- quy and persecution ; and, at the hands of a mob losing his books, manuscripts, and philosophical instruments, he was virtually banished from his native land. In 1792 he removed to America, gave courses of lectures in Philadelphia, which added fresh stimulus to the rising Unitarianism, Init retired for his closing years to the small neighboring village of Northumberland, where he died in 1804. In 1813 the Unitarians were first placed by law on an equality with other Dissenters. For some years sharp controversy continued as to the proprietary rights in certain Church properties held by them, but claimed by orthodox Dissenters. These claims were finally silenced in favor of the Unitarian occupants by the Dissenters' Chapels Act of 1844. At the present time there are reported about 350 Unitari- rian churches in England, mostly Congregational in Church government, and of which one fourth have been formed within the last twenty- five years. In Northern Ireland there is a Unitarian population of about 10,000, still Presbyterians in Church government.
In Scotland there are in the larger cities and towns about ten LTnitarian churches. In that country occur- red the last execution for blasphemy against the Trini- ty in the person of a young student, Thomas Aiken- head, hanged near Edinburgh in 1696. The present Unitarian Church of Edinburgh, originally strictly Calvinistic, having adopted the principle of free in- quiry, became Arian and finally humanitarian under the pastorate of Dr. Southwood Smith in 1812. In Wales about thirty-four churches of this faith are re- ported; and there are several strong societies at Mon- treal, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and other places in the British colonies in Canada, India, and Australia. The English Unitarians maintain a missionary college in Manchester, a Presbyterian college at Carmarthen which educates Unitarian and Independent ministers, and the larger unsectarian institution of Manchester New College, removed recently to London. In their interest are conducted several weekly religious papers: The Inquirer, The Christian Life, The Unitarian Her- ald, and the new periodical The Modern Review. Their representative missionary society is the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, formed in London, May 25, 1825. Among the leading writers may be named (be- sides Priesllej', Lindsey, and Belsham early in the cen- tury), more recently, Kevs. John James Tayler, Charles Beard, John Hamilton Thom, and James IMartineau, one of the greatest living exponents of the higher phi- losophy of the spirit i-ersiis modern materialism. It may be truthfully added that the movement of English Unitarianism is outgrowing the legalism and literalism of a philosophy which narrowed its earlier faith, and is reaching a broader and deeper spirituality.
11. In America, the free inquiry and open field of thought from the beginning have been favorable to Unitarian views, and the movement for spiritual liberty found special stimulus in the public sentiment following the Kevolution. The Pilgrims, bringing to America the parting injunction of their pastor, John Robinson, of Leyden, that there was "more light to break out from God's Word, "organized the first Congregational churches in New England at Plymouth, Salem, and Boston upon covenants so broad and undogmatic that these have required no change in accepting the Unitarian faith. Without doubt, the prevailing sentiment was mainly Calvinistic at the start, yet with a measure of Ar- minianism intermingled that grew imperceptibly, until for the last century and a half the progress of Unita-
UNITARIANISM
645
UNITARIANISM
rian sentiments may be distinctly traced. Dr. Gay, of Hinghara, ordained in 1717, is supposed to have been the first American preacher of Unitarianism. Before the Revolution, many lawyers, phj-sicians, tradesmen, and farmers were Unitarians, according to the testimony of the elder president Adams, himself a Unitarian ; and not the laity only, but many of the clergv, prominent among whom was Mayhew, of the West Church, Bos- ton. In 17G8 the famous Hopkins prepared a sermon especially against what he deemed the heresy of the Boston ministers. In 1783, under the lead of their young minister. Rev. James Freeman, then recentl_y or- dained, the Episcopal Church of King's Chapel in Bos- ton expunged from its Book of Common Prayer all ref- erence to the Trinity and the worship of Christ, and thus became the first distinctively Unitarian Church in America. Its liturgy and Church organization continue substantially the same at the present time. Priestley's coming gave fresh impulse to this faith, and the writings of Lindsey and Belsham found their way hither. In a letter to Dr. Lindsey, in London, Rev. James Freeman writes that there were " many churches in which the worship was strictly Unitarian, and some of New Eng- land's most eminent clergymen openly avowed that creed." In 1801 the oldest Puritan Church in America, the original Church of the Mayflower, established at Plymouth in 1620, by a large majority vote declared it- self Unitarian; and with no change in its covenant, using the identical statement of faith drawn up by its Pilgrim founders, it to-day accepts the Unitarian name and fellowship. Free from restraints of dogmatic creeds and tests, the New England Congregational churches were especially hospitable to inquiry and progress. By imperceptible degrees change came. In 1805 the Uni- tarian Rev. Dr. Ware was made professor of divinity at Harvard University, Cambridge. This fact excited op- position and controversy. In 1815 a controversy be- tween Dr. Channing and Dr. Worcester resulted in open rupture between the Trinitarian and Unitarian Congre- gatioualists. In 18 IG the Divinity School at Cambridge was established by Unitarians. Harvard College was in their hands, and chiefly by their influence has main- tained the undenominational position which it claims to-day. For ten years, from 1815 to 1825, the contro- versy waxed hot; lines of separation were drawn, and churches and men took sides. As the churches divided the majority carried their name and property to Trini- tarian or Unitarian ranks. Meanwhile the seceding mi- norities organized anew on one side or the other. Thus the ancient parishes, each coextensive with its town, were divided ; and in many New England towns the old- est church, retaining its ancient Congregational liberty and usages, became in faith and fellowship Unitarian.