IINITA'RIANS, a name applied generally to all who maintain that God exists in one person only, and specially to a small Christian sect of recent times, whose distin guishing tenet is the unity as opposed to the trinity of the Godhead. In the more general sense, the name of course includes the Jews and the Mohammedans as well as those Christians who deny the doctrine of the trinity, and in this sense also there have been Unitarians from the earliest period of ecclesiastical history. Until the middle of the 2d c., there seems to have been no controversy upon the subject; but from that time to the end of the 3d c., there was a succession of eminent teachers who maintained, against the ecclesiastical doctrine of the Logos, the undivided unity—or, as they expressed it—the monarchy of God. From their use of this word, they are known in ecclesiastical history as the Monarchians. There are general:y understood to have been two classes of them—those who taught that Christ was God in such a sense that it was the Father who became man, and was born and suffered, and who were, on this account, called by their opponents Patripassians; and secondly, those who held that Christ was in nature a mere man, but exalted above all other prophets by the superior measure of divine wisdom with which he was endowed, and who therefore corre sponded more nearly with the modern Unitarians. It is right to notice, however, that the doctrines of the Monarchians are known to us only through the statements of opponents, and it is probable they would have disowned the more extreme views ascribed to them. To the former of the two classes we have mentioned belonged Praxeas, against whom there is a treatise by Tertullian, and Noetus; and at a later period —about the middle of the 3d c.—the famous Sabellius taught very similar doctrines. The other class was represented by Theodotus, Artemou, and especially Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who was eventually deposed on account of his heresy. Beryllus, bishop of Bostra in Arabia, who is said to have been convinced of his error by Origen, would seem, from the single. sentence which records his teaching, to have belonged to this class rather than the other. The Monarchians appealed in support of their doctrines to the Old and New Testaments, and to the early opinions of the church. They are said, by Tertullian, to have consisted of the simple and the unlearned—" always," he adds, " a majority of the faithful "—a statement which shows that they must have been tolerably numerous in his time; while a writer quoted by Eusebius brings against them the apparently opposite charge of being students of geom etry and lovers of Aristotle.
The grand theological struggle which followed in the 4th c. between the Arians and the Athanasiaris may be regarded as but another phase of the Unitarian contro versy, inasmuch as Arius held that the Son was a created being, and denied his consub stantiality with the Father. On this head, the reader may consult the articles ARIUS and ATHANASIUS. We now pass ou to the post-reformation period.
It is not strange that in the great stir of thought which accompanied the reforma tion, some should have been found bold enough to question the grand Catholic doctrine of the trinity. Such there were even before the bociui. See Soctxus. Among the earliest may be mentioned Hetzer and Bassen, both of whom were executed in 1529, the former, however, not exclusively for his religious opinions; Deuck, Campanus, and the famous Spaniard, Michael Servetus (q.v.). So widely, indeed, was the Unitarian
doctrine diffused that it was thought necessary, in the first article of the Augsburg con fession, to condemn the modern Samosatans, who deny the personality of the Word and Spirit, declaring the former to be a proper spoken word, and the latter a divine influ ence; and as early as 1527, one Andr. Althamer published a work against "the modern Jews and Arians under a Christian name, who deny the deity of Christ." Under the influence of the elder Socinus, Unitarianism gained many adherents in Venetia. Poland and Transylvania, however, became its principal strongholds, and in those countries, favored by circumstances, it struck the deepest roots. In Poland, the nobility, protected from persecution by their class privileges. proved singularly favorable to a movement which seemed more destructive of the traditions of the Catholic church than any that had yet been entered upon; the Unitarian refugees from other countries found here a ready wel come; and in the reign of Sigismund II. (1548-72), this party of reformers was strong enough to form itself into a separate church. At a rather later period, Poland was the principal field of labor of the younger Socinus, and Unitarianism continued to flourish there until the middle of the 17th c., when, under John Casimir, who before his eleva tion to the throne had been a cardinal and a Jesuit, it was extirpated by force. In Transylvania, the Unitarians have succeeded in maintaining their existence, notwith standing much opposition and persecution, from the reformation to the present day. The first who openly preached Unitarianism in that country were George Blandrata and Francis Davidis (1565). and under the influence of these distinguished men, large num bers, including the king himself, embraced the new pinions. But this period of pros perity was not of long duration. In 1572, though still permitted to worship according to their conscience, the Unitarians were forbidden to make any attempts at propagand ism, or even to print their religious books. They were not, however, subjected to any violent persecution until after the incorporation of Transylvania with the Austrian empire, which took place in 1690; but after that time they were robbed by the Roman Catholics of-all their churches and church property, forbidden to build new churches without the permission of the emperor, and by degrees excluded from all government offices, even the very lowest. On the accession of Joseph II., happier times returned. Their churches were forbidden to be seized, and an indemnity was even paid them for the loss of the cathedral church of Klausenburg. They were now enabled to build new churches, and their cathedral and college at Klausenburg are said to be still two of the finest buildings in that city. The Unitarians of Transylvania number about 60,000,and are said to be increasing. They have an organized system of church government, with a bishop at its head. They have three colleges—that of Klausenburg, with 12 professors and 273 students; that of Torda; and that of St. Keresztur.