In 156S Francis David preached a similar doctrine in the streets of Klausenhurg. in Tran sylvania, and began a movement of far-reaching significance. For a number of years the Unita rian views were disseminated without hid ()ranee among the Hungarians. In the seven teenth century. however, persecutions began. The churches and schools of the Unitarians were con fiscated, their printing-presses destroyed, and their lands wrested from them. But such was the tenacity of the people that in spite of two centuries of bitter trial the Unitarian cause sur vived in Hungary. Not till 1791 did royal decree restore to the Unitarians the free exercise of their religion. A last effort to crush them oc curred as late as 1857, but with the help of fellow-believers in England and America the Hungarian Unitarians survived that attack also; and while fewer in number than in the seven teenth century, they ace now again increasing.
One other cjefinite landmark among the earlier assertions of the Unitarian spirit must be noted. 1n 1553 a fugitive Spanish scholar, Michael Servetus (q.v.), printed at Vienne a remarkable book called The Restoration of Christianity. In this book tie declared that it was not alone a reformation of the Church, hut a reformation of principles that was needed, and a return to the pure teachings of ,Tesus. Servetus was burned at the stake in Geneva in 1553, Calvin consenting, but his books were widely read.
The teachings of Socinus and Servetus found a ready reception in England. The "Raeuvian Catechism" was dedicated to James 1., and at tracted so much attention that in 1614 Parlia ment ordered all copies seized and publicly burned. A little later, denial of the Trinity was made punishable by death. The last persons put to death for religious opinions in England were Unitarians. John Biddle (q.v.), a school master in Gloucester. was the boldest leader of the early English Unitarians. In spite of perse cution, he maintained that "there is no other authorized interpreter of Scripture than•reason." Cromwell countenanced and pensioned Biddle; but after the Protector's death lie was once more thrown into prison, where he died (1662). The story of Unitarianism in England during the seventeenth century is one of struggling and isolated martyrs. No public organization was possible, owing to measures of repression, but some of the greatest men of the age, such as dohs Milton, John Locke, and Sir Isaac Newton, recorded their final judgment in favor of the Unitarian interpretation of Christianity.
During the eighteenth century there was a steady broadening of religious thought in Eng land. When the Act of Toleration in 16S9 per mitted the building of non-conformist chapels, a number of the English Presbyterian churches left their trust deeds 'open' and refused to bind their successors to any definite formularies. Before
the end of the eighteenth century many of these churches, without any sudden change, had come to a Unitarian position. They did not take the name, but continued for the most part to call themselves Presbyterian, and sonic do so still. Joseph Priestley (q.v.), the discoverer of oxygen, was minister of one of these churches in Birming ham. His book on The Corruption of Christianity (17R2) exerted a wide influence. In 1794 he emigrated to America and, settling in Pennsyl vania. established in Philadelphia and in North umberland Unitarian congregations.
The first church in established with the definite Unitarian name was organized in 1774. by Theophilus Lindsey, who gave up his living in the Established Church and organized the Essex Street Chapel in London on the site where now stands Essex Hall. the headquarters of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association. To this nucleus slowly gravitated many of the Presbyterian churches already named, and others from the General 112 ptist Connection. and simi lar progressive communions. It was not, how ever, until 1S13 that the penal laws against Uni tarianism were finally repealed. The British and Foreign Unitarian Association was organized in 1325.
The seeds of the Unitarian movement were brought to America in the Mayflower. They were planted wherever a church was organized in New England with a eorenailt,Ninstead of a creed. It was among the oldest of the Puritan and Pilgrim churches that Unitarianism in America started, and the majority of the orig inal Massachusetts churches followed later the lead of Charming. This development was with out abrupt transitions, and did not require any alteration in the broad lines of the first cove nants. The Pilgrims' Church in Plymouth, though now for a century Unitarian in fellow ship, retains the original covenant by which in Holland the Pilgrims "formed themselves into a Church or State in the fellowship of the gospel to walk together in all His ways made known, or to be made known unto them." The First Church in Salem still retains the covenant of 1628. While the original Puritan churches in New England were rigidly orthodox in theology, the whole atmosphere of the colonial life was in creasingly that of freedom. The democratic prin ciples adopted in the State found also expres sion in the Church, and soon after the Revo lution many ministers of the older churches in New England assumed a practically Unitarian position.