Unitarianism | Page 3

the Church's authority, including the
fundamental doctrine of the Trinity. But, while this new ferment led to
departures from the received opinions in many countries, especially in
Poland and the Netherlands, the Protestant leaders maintained that upon
the great articles of the creeds they were still one with Rome, and in
fact they soon displayed an eagerness to stifle heresy. Men often fail to
see the logic of their own position, and many who claimed the right to
differ from Rome on points which Rome considered vital were unable
to grant that others had an equal right to differ from Luther, Calvin, or
an English State Church. The outrageous cruelty of Calvin towards the

Anti-trinitarian Servetus, whom he caused to be burned at Geneva in
1553, affords a glaring instance of this inconsistency. But a sad proof is
given that, about that time, even Anti-trinitarians themselves were not
always tolerant.
Among the countries where the orthodox dogma was most freely
questioned was Transylvania, adjacent to Hungary proper.
Here the sovereign, John Sigismund, took sides with the
Anti-trinitarians, and issued in 1568 an edict permitting four recognized
types of doctrine and worship--Romanist, Lutheran, Calvinist, and
Unitarian. The Transylvanians were at this time largely under the
influence of their Polish brethren in the faith, who still practised the
invocation of Christ. Francis David, a powerful religious leader in
Hungary, having arrived at a 'Humanitarian' view of Christ two
centuries before it was held by English Unitarians, opposed
Christ-worship. In 1579, when a Catholic had succeeded to the throne,
David was denounced for an intolerable heretic by the Polish party, and,
being imprisoned, died the same year. This blot on the record has long
been deplored, and David is held in honour as a martyr by the
Transylvanian Unitarian Church, which still flourishes, and forms a
third member in alliance with the Unitarians of Great Britain and
America. As, however, these Transylvanian (popularly called
'Hungarian') Unitarians had until the nineteenth century little or no
connection with the English and Americans, and have not materially
affected the development of the movement, we omit the details of their
special history.
In England a number of Anti-trinitarians suffered burning in the
sixteenth century, being usually, but loosely, described as 'Arians.' The
last two in England who died by fire as heretics were men of this class.
In March, 1612, Bartholomew Legate was burned at Smithfield, and a
month later Edward Wightman had the same fate at Lichfield. So late
as 1697 a youth named Pakenham was hanged at Edinburgh on the
charge of heretical blasphemy. Although these were the only
executions of the kind here in the seventeenth century, the evidence is
but too clear that the authorities conceived it to be their duty to put

down this form of opinion with the severest rigour. In a letter sent by
Archbishop Neile, of York, to Bishop Laud, in 1639, reference is made
to Wightman's case, and it is stated that another man, one Trendall,
deserves the same sentence. A few years later, Paul Best, a scholarly
gentleman who had travelled in Poland and Transylvania and there
adopted Anti-trinitarian views, was sentenced by vote of the House of
Commons to be hanged for denying the Trinity. The Ordinance drawn
up in 1648 by the Puritan authorities was incredibly vindictive against
what they judged to be heretical. Happily, Oliver Cromwell and his
Independents were conscious of considerable variety of opinion in their
own ranks, and apparently the Protector secured Best's liberation. It
was certainly he who saved another and more memorable Unitarian
from the extreme penalty.
This man was John Bidle, a clergyman and schoolmaster of Gloucester.
His Biblical studies led him to a denial of the Trinity, which he lost no
occasion of making public. During twenty years, broken by five or six
imprisonments, he persisted in the effort to diffuse Unitarian teachings,
and even to organize services for Unitarian worship. His writings and
personal influence were so widely recognized that it became a fashion
later to speak of Unitarians as 'Bidellians.' Cromwell was evidently
troubled about him, feeling repugnance to his doctrine yet averse to
ill-treat a man of unblemished character. In 1655, ten years after Bidle's
first imprisonment, the Protector sent him to the Scilly Islands,
obviously to spare him a worse fate, and allowed him a yearly sum for
maintenance. A few months before Cromwell's death, he was brought
back to London, and on being set at liberty at once renewed his efforts.
Finally, he was caught 'conventicling' in 1662 and sent to gaol, and in
September of that year he died.
II. INFLUENCES MAKING FOR 'LATITUDE'
The foregoing sufficiently illustrates the position confronting those
who at that time openly avowed their departure from the Trinitarian
dogma. Those who dared and suffered were no doubt but