HUMANITARIANS, in the theological sense, is a term applied chiefly to a school of theologians who repudiated the doctrine of the Trinity and held an extreme view of the person of Christ as simply human although miraculously endowed. The adoption of this position by men like Nathaniel Lardner, Joseph Priestley and Theophilus Lindsey in the middle of the 18th cen tury led to the establishment of the first definitely organized Unitarian churches in England (see UNITARIANISM).