The burning of Servetus (1553) at the stake in Geneva, at the direct instigation of Calvin, for the sin of writing and publishing (1531) the book
In the neighboring kingdom of Transylvania (Hungary) the Unitarian movement ran a somewhat similar course, except there it was not wholly destroyed by the Catholic reaction. There is some dispute as to the actual founder of Unitarianism in this country. Blandrata who later was in starting the per secution. of Unitarians when for purely per sonal reasons he sought to return to the Catho lic Church — in 1563 came from Poland to Transylvania and ((was made physician-in ordinary to the king, John Sigismund" ; and it is assumed that "through his influence the king, the king's mother, and many nobles accepted the Unitarian faith." Francis David, "now regarded as the true apostle of Transylvania Unitarianism," was elected (1564) bishop of the Calvinistic churches. His liberal and eloquent preaching attracted multitudes in Klausenberg, and caught the attention of Blandrata, who used his good offices to. have him appointed chaplain to the king in 1566. Here he preached the doctrine that who. divided Christ into two, man and not man but God, he is a de ceiver." In 1568 was issued. a royal edict, con firmed by the Diet, giving to everyone complete freedom of conscience and of speech. During
this year a great public debate was held with David and Peter Melius, a strict Calvinist, as the chief debaters. David triumphed and. that "day the whole people of the town of Kolozsvar became Unitarian," which is probably an exag geration but plainly reveals the power of David's preaching. "The example was followed by a large number of Transylvania towns." At about this time there were in this country 425 congregations Unitarian by profession. "In 13 higher schools and colleges besides that doc trine was taught by able professors, several of whom were refugees from other lands." By 1578 a serious controversy developed within the Unitarian churches. Blandrata, who was pre paring to save himself in the powerful Catholic reaction which he saw coming, headed the party who were for maintaining that "Christ should be invoked with divine honors, though without any inherent title to such homage," and he called to his aid Faustus Socinus, who was a noted champion of this idea. The result was a "public explosion on David's part against the cultus of Christ in any shape or form." Whereupon, at the instigation of Blandrata, articles were drawn up "accusing David of innovation of doctrine," and presented to the Roman Catholic icing then reigning. The ac cused was condemned to imprisonment for life. "Five months later (1579) he died in the dun geon at Deva." Despite the confiscation of their schools and churches and printing estab lishments which followed, the Unitarians main tained their existence and with the enactment of a statute in 1791 granting "equal liberties and rights in Transylvania" a new day dawned for these churches. To-day there are 116 churches with a total membership of 80,000. These churches are presided over by Bishop Joseph Ferencz, a bishop being made necessary by the laws of the country.
The organized beginnings of Unitarianism in England may be said to date from about 1773, when Theophilus Lindsey, on the failure of the petition for relieving clergy men "from the burden of subscribing to the thirty-nine articles," resigned his "living in Yorkshire and gathered the first professedly Unitarian church in London." Prior to this time, however, there was considerable anti trinitarian sentiment. From 1551 to 1612 no less than nine persons suffered martyrdom on this account. In 1614 a Latin version of the Racovian catechism was publicly burned in Lon don. Such treatment did not avail to stop the spread of this sentiment as is evident from an ordinance passed in 1648 making denial of the Trinity a capital offense. This ordinance was rendered inoperative by Oliver Cromwell, who refused to sanction the prosecution of Paul Best and John Biddle. The latter occasionally, from 1652 to 1662, held a "Socinian conventicle in London" and published much Unitarian or Socinian literature. In 1655 the great Dr. Owen complained that "there is not a city, a town, or scarce a village in England where some of this poison is not poured forth," and the Act of Toleration (1689) specifically excluded papists and deniers of the Trinity. Thomas Emlyn, fined and imprisoned (1703) in Dublin for re jecting the deity of Christ, preached Unitarian ism in London in 1705. William Robertson in Ireland — sometimes called the father of Uni tarian non-conformity— seceded from the Es tablished Church at a date earlier than Lindsey. The scholarly Nathaniel Lardner in 1730 advo cated in his writings a purely humanitarian view of the Christ, as did also Dr. Joseph Priestly in 1767. A century before this John Milton taught a similar gospel in his tian Isaac Newton was an anony mous writer on the same doctrine and John Locke in his of Christianity) (1695) ranged himself on the same side. Dr. Samuel Clarke, Isaac Watts and Phillip Dodd ridge aided materially in the spread of "Socin ian and Arian views among dissenters." When Dr. Lindsey withdrew from the Established Church and set up a Unitarian meeting-house in London, a number of ministers of Presby terian chapels soon followed his example. In the case of these latter it was not necessary for the ministers to withdraw from the min istry of these institutions because the chapel trust deeds gave freedom of theological opinion, so there was nothing to prevent the chapels from accepting the Unitarian views. Thus it came to pass that a number of chapels with open trust deeds bodily went over to the Uni tarian movement inaugurated by Dr. Lindsey.