In 1791 the Unitarian Book Society for the distribution of literature was organized, and from then on Unitarianism becomes a definitely organized force in the religious life of England. In 1844 all civil disabilities which Unitarians had suffered were removed.
At present there are in Great Britain 370 places of Unitarian worship. The number of members is not known and estimates are use less. Manchester College, Oxford; The Unitarian Home Missionary College, Man chester; and Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, Wales, are the training schools for British Uni tarian ministers. The British and Foreign Unitarian Association, with headquarters at Essex Hall, Essex street, London, is the organ ization through which missionary and denomi national enterprises are carried on. The Chris tian Life and The Inquirer, London, are the leading denominational periodicals.
America.— It would not be correct to as sume that Unitarianism in America, which ap pears subsequent to its organized existence in Europe, originated independent of all foreign influence. The intercourse between the people of the Old World and the New made that impossible. Besides, the migration of people from the older countries to America in search sometimes of a greater freedom naturally in cluded some of the Unitarian way of thinking and believing. The most notable and influenc ing single incident was the coming of Dr. Joseph Priestly to the United States in 1794. Two Unitarian churches were founded by him, Northumberland, Pa. (1794), and Philadelphia (1796). The Unitarian church (1803) at Olden barnveld. later Trenton, now Barneveld, N. Y., was founded by a group of Dutch refugees who had close relationship with the English Unitarians. These three churches have played a considerable part in the spread of Unitarian ism in America, and the church at Barneveld furnished the inspiration to Mr. Huidekoper who later founded the theological school at Meadville, Pa.
But, broadly speaking, American Unitarian ism is of American origin. It is in part the fruit of the spirit of religious freedom em bodied in the Mayflower compact, and in part the result of the democratic form of govern ment which ruled the New England parish churches. It is a suggestive and significant fact
that the oldest Pilgrim church in America, that founded at Plymouth in 1620, in 1801 declared itself to be Unitarian by a large majority vote, and this without making any change whatever in its covenant. This church, now Unitarian in name and fellowship, uses the identical state ment of faith drawn up by its Pilgrim found ers. American Unitarianism is in large part the product of the habit of many notable New England divines of thinking and speaking their own thoughts and of their utter dislike of any thing that savored of monarchy in religion as well as in politics. It was also a product in part of their rebellion against what seemed to them to be the moral defects of the popular faith.
Before 1825, the date usually adopted as the beginning of organized Unitarianism in the United States, the ideas peculiar to.Unitarian ism were being preached by an ever-increasing number of the New England clergy and laity. It is not possible within the space of this article to trace these beginnings. To Jonathan Mayhew, settled as minister of the West Church in 1747, belongs the honor of being the "first outspoken Unitarian in New England, not merely because he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, but because he accepted all the cardinal principles developed by that movement since his day." More important, in some re spects, was the action of the corporate body of King's Chapel, Boston — the first church in New England— declaring for Uni tarianism by inviting (1782) Rev. James Free man become its minister, and three years later voting to revise its Episcopal ritual by eliminating all Trinitarianism therefrom. Dur ing the last decade of the 18th century Uni tarianism is reported to be "on the increase in the Southern counties of Massachusetts" and that "it is on the increase in Maine," but with the exception of King's Chapel and temporary societies in Portland and Saco, Me. (1792), the churches established at Northumberland (1794) and Philadelphia, Pa. (1796), there was nothing in the way of organized Unitarianism before the opening of the 19th century.