Antitrinitarians

ANTITRINITARIANS. - This name designates all heretics who profess some error against the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, whether they affirm that there are three natures in it (tritheists), or maintain that there is only one person (monarchians), or deny the divinity of one of the three divine persons. The history of Antitrinitarianism can be divided into three periods: 1) from the beginning of Christianity to the 16th century; 2) from the 16th to the 17th century, or the Socinian period; 3) from the 18th century to our own day, or the Unitarian period.

1st Period. - The Most Holy Trinity was denied in the 2nd century by the heresiarch Praxeas (v. MONARCHIANISM), who admitted only the person of the Father, who would have suffered and died for men; whence the name "patripassians," given to his followers. In the 3rd century Noetus (v.) and Sabellius (v.) denied the three persons, not to mention the Manichaeans, who in place of the Trinity introduced dualism, or the two principles of good and evil. In the same century Paul of Samosata (v.), and in the following one Arius (v.), denied the consubstantiality of the Son, and Macedonius (v.) the divinity of the Holy Spirit. These errors and others concerning the Trinity were condemned in the Council of Nicaea (325), in the First Council of Constantinople (583) and in the Roman synods under Pope Damasus I. The Priscillianists (v.) too were accused as Antitrinitarians, if it is true that the creed of the Eleventh Council of Toledo, in 675, was drawn up against them.

During the Middle Ages there were not a few erroneous explanations that men sought to give of the mystery of the Trinity; and indeed in the Synod of Sens of 1140 the errors of Peter Abelard (v.) were condemned, and in the Fourth Lateran Council those of Joachim of Fiore (v.). Antitrinitarian errors also found support in the doctrine of the extreme nominalists, according to whom the names of the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity are names of three individual natures or substances, while the unity of nature of the persons is a mere verbal expression. One must therefore conclude that Antitrinitarian theories, in one form or another, persisted, though latent, until the 16th century.

2nd Period, or Socinian period. - The rebirth of Antitrinitarianism in the 16th century, besides the part that nominalist doctrine may have played in it, is due to the doctrine of "free examination." It is certain that Luther, Calvin and the Anglicans remained faithful to the dogma of the Most Holy Trinity and indeed persecuted the Antitrinitarians; but, once their principle was laid down, it was natural that Antitrinitarianism should emerge among its consequences.

In article 1 of the Augsburg Confession the old and new Samosatans are condemned, who maintain that there is only one person, and impiously argue that the persons are not distinct, affirming that the Word is a spoken word (verbum vocale) and the Spirit is the created impulse of things.

What Melanchthon feared in his letter was unfortunately a reality. In Germany itself and in Switzerland Martin Cellarius (d. 1564), W. F. Capito (d. 1542), G. Campanus (d. after 1553), L. Hetzer (d. 1529), G. Denk (d. 1528) propagated Antitrinitarian doctrines. All had to suffer persecutions, and Hetzer was condemned to death by the Protestants of Basel. The Antitrinitarian doctrines, however, owe their greatest development and their most extensive propaganda to the Spaniard Michael Servetus (1509-53) and to certain Italian heretics, whose activity Zanchi, a Protestant pastor at Chiavenna, where many of them sojourned, summed up in a few words: "Hispania gallinas peperit, Italia fovet ova, nos iam pipientes pullos audimus." The Antitrinitarian ideas and their Italian propagandists, rejected not only by the Catholic countries but also by the Protestants, who in 1566 condemned to the ultimate punishment the Calabrian Giovanni Valentino Gentile, found refuge in Poland under King Sigismund II Augustus (1543-72) and in Transylvania. To one and the other of the two countries went almost all the principal Italian Antitrinitarians: the Gentile mentioned above, the Sienese Lelio Socino Sozino or Sozzini (v.), d. 1562, and his nephew Fausto, d. 1604, the Mantuan Francesco Stancari (v.) d. 1564 and the two Piedmontese Giampaolo Alcini (v.) d. 1565 and Giorgio Biandrata (v.) d. 1588. The Antitrinitarian doctrines of all these Italian heretics can be gathered from the Theses de Filio Dei et Trinitate, a Socino vel Sociniano confectae, and from the colloquy held at Racow in 1601. "There is but one God and one person, the Father; Jesus Christ is a simple man, conceived miraculously but from human seed, anointed by the Holy Spirit, who, however, is nothing but the power and energy of the divinity. Jesus Christ after his death and resurrection was so exalted in his humanity that he can be called God and adored, not by right, but as God's plenipotentiary."

The heretical doctrines of the Socinians concerned not only the Most Holy Trinity but also other dogmas. Comparing the Protestants of that time with the Socinians, Cantù writes (Gli eretici d'Italia, II, p. 491): "The Socinians, like the followers of Luther, announced themselves as restorers of primitive Christianity in adopting Holy Scripture as the sole and only rule of faith and norm of actions; Luther, eliminating from the Bible whatever did not please him, preserved the dogmas of the Trinity, of Original Sin, of the Incarnation and Divinity of Christ, of Baptism, of the Eucharist; Socinus removed everything. Lutheranism had given pre-eminence to the divine element, Socinianism to the human; Lutherans and Reformed exaggerated hereditary sin, the Socinians did not acknowledge it."

In Transylvania, where Biandrata was active, one of the principal Antitrinitarian leaders, Francis David, bitterly opposed the view, held by Biandrata, that Jesus Christ could be called God and adored. Biandrata then invited Fausto Socino to go there; he went in 1578, but could not convince David, who, shut up in prison, died there. From Transylvania, in 1579, Socino passed into Poland.

In Poland Antitrinitarianism had already been propagated by the aforementioned Italians. In 1570 a Polish nobleman had permitted them to found a center of study and rest in his estate at Racow. Already among them two principal parties had formed: the Farnovian, which conceded that some worship could be given to Jesus Christ, and the Budneist, which denied him every kind of worship. Socino at first was not well received by either the one or the other, but, being the shrewd man he was, he gradually obtained that at the Synod of Brest-Litovsk of 1588 and at that of Racow of 1603 the various parties should unite and his doctrine prevail. At the death of Sigismund II the heretics partly lost their influence, but they continued to organize and to propagate their doctrines. Socino, though with some opposition, continued to work until his death, which occurred in 1604. On his tomb this epitaph was carved: "Tota ruet Babylon (that is, the Catholic Church), destruxit tecta Lutherus, muros Calvinus, sed fundamenta Socinus"; and, if the prophecy proved false, the words well indicate the tendencies of the three heresiarchs. Socinianism maintained itself in Poland, amid various vicissitudes, until 1638, when some fanatical students of Racow dared to break a cross exposed for public veneration. The Diet of Warsaw then ordered the closing of the school of Racow, prohibited Socinian printing and exiled its ministers.

But the final blow to the Polish Socinians was dealt in 1658, when, during the Swedish invasion, it was discovered that they maintained secret understandings with the prince of Transylvania, Ragotski, who had invaded Poland; wherefore they were all driven from the kingdom. In Transylvania they continued without obstacles until 1699, even after this region was annexed to Austria, which limited itself to taking away some churches from the Socinians, while recognizing their freedom of worship. Some groups of Unitarians exist even today in Transylvania, but they are more than anything else partisans of the doctrines of David, whom they consider a martyr.

3rd Unitarian Period. - A) The A. in England. - Among the Anabaptists who took refuge in England in 1535, some were burned alive by the English courts, because they were accused of denying the Trinity and the Divinity of Jesus Christ. In 1550 Giovanna Bouche and, in 1611, under James I, two other heretics were condemned to the same torture for the same reason. They were thus isolated, but indicative of a hidden current, which gradually manifested itself, when the Socinian books, published at Racow, spread in England and some Polish Socinians, driven from their homeland in 1638 and 1658, arrived there. During the English Civil War, John Biddle (v.) made a public profession of antitrinitarianism and, condemned to prison, owed his liberation to Cromwell.

Various were the causes and circumstances that favored, in the 17th and 18th centuries, the propagation of antitrinitarianism. One of them is to be sought in Arminianism: not in the sense that Arminius denied the dogma of the Trinity, but in the sense that the Arminians, applying the principle of free examination, maintained that everyone was free in interpreting Holy Scripture and was not obliged to believe anything except what he understood. In any case their principal theologian, Episcopius, professed antitrinitarianism, so much so that in the English colonies Edwards called the A. Arminians. A second cause was rationalism, enemy of all dogmas, which developed during the Civil War, many Englishmen no longer being dismayed among so many Anglican, Puritan, Independent, Presbyterian doctrines and those more recent of the Quakers. Deism also contributed to it, so much so that one of its founders, Locke, is considered by the A. as one of their own. The Edict of Toleration of 1688, without realizing it, gave a new impulse to this sect, freeing from all control the non-conformist sects (thus were called the English Baptists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians).

While the first two sects stiffened in their doctrines, the English Presbyterians, much less rigid than their co-religionists of Scotland, left ample freedom to their followers; so that their pastors began to interpret the Bible more freely and, while remaining within Presbyterianism and preserving great respect for the person of Jesus Christ, no longer insisted on his divinity. There followed a certain doctrinal wavering, to which Priestley (1733-1804) wished to put an end, maintaining that the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus Christ and his expiatory sacrifice were corruptions of Christianity, and that Unitarianism was the primitive doctrine. His followers thus began to be called Unitarians. Priestley, persecuted for his doctrines, went to America in 1794, and there continued to spread his heresy.

To this group of Presbyterians was joined in 1770 a group of Baptists called "general," of Arminian tendency, who formed the General Unitarian Baptists. Toward the middle of the 19th century, some Methodist churches also admitted A. doctrines; so that one can say that English Unitarianism was composed in large part of refugees from the three aforementioned sects. To the Anglican minister Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808) is owed the first Unitarian chapel in England, with public and special worship. Lindsey, inclined to deism and a convinced latitudinarian, demanded that Anglican ministers not be imposed the obligation of subscribing to the 39 articles of religion, especially those that contained Trinitarian doctrines (v. ARTICOLI DI RELIGIONE ANGLICANI). Having had his request rejected, he abandoned his parish in 1773 and the following year opened the first Unitarian chapel. In the 19th century the English Unitarians, as also the Americans, were unable to escape the influence of the German theological school, and there became common among them the associations called those of the "free Christians," of the "free believers," etc.

At present there are approximately 300 Unitarian churches or chapels in England with 40,000 members, who dedicate themselves to philanthropic works. Their center is at Essex Hall, in London.

B) The A. in the United States. - In the English North American colonies, antitrinitarianism arose from the Congregationalist churches, each of which is free to formulate its creed or confession of faith.

During the 18th century many Congregationalist churches of Massachusetts adopted A. doctrines. The first church that publicly proclaimed such doctrines was the King's Chapel of Boston, headed by the Anglican minister James Freeman. Those who had remained Trinitarian began to call the others "Unitarians," and this name became general after 1819, on the occasion of a speech delivered in Boston by W. Ellery Channing. Many were the struggles and internal divisions among the American Unitarians. It suffices to recall the schism of 1867, which gave origin to the "Free Religious Association," that of the Western conference in 1885, etc. Among the "forms of recommendation" the proposal was made that all should call themselves "theistic Christians"; theists, because they adored one God, the Father; Christians, because they venerated Jesus as the greatest of the historical prophets. Such a proposal was not accepted. Finally a certain understanding was reached at the national conference of Saratoga (1894), in which, having reduced the creed to a minimum, it was established that the Unitarians and Christians "accept the religion of Jesus and profess, in conformity with the doctrine, that the practice of religion is summed up in the love of God and the love of neighbor."

Unitarianism spread with greater success in the United States than in England. It counted among its followers great political men like the two Adams, Fillmore and Jefferson, presidents of the republic; statesmen like B. Franklin; philanthropists like W. E. Channing and T. Parker; writers like Hawthorne. The institution of domestic missions and the founding of three theological schools for the formation of ministers gave impulse to the propagation of the Unitarian doctrine. There was a period in which the Harvard school of theology was Unitarian. The number of Unitarians in the United States is about 112,000 and their principal center is in Boston. Among the Unitarians the most radical insist on absolute freedom of creed, on tolerance of any religious opinion, on education, on works of philanthropy and on the formation of Christian character; the less radical wish to profess, though in a vague manner, some doctrines such as the unipersonality of God, the religion taught by the greatest of the prophets, Jesus Christ, to whom however they do not give worship (distinguishing themselves in this from the Socinians), the denial of original sin, the purely natural character of the Bible and the salvation of all, agreeing in this with the Universalists, with whom in 1899, without changing the individual organizations, they formed a common committee.

Besides the two American and English groups, there are some of little importance in Ireland, in Wales and in Transylvania, and others less numerous in Scotland, Belgium, Brazil, Czechoslovakia, Iceland, India, Japan, Norway and Switzerland. In Italy the members of the "Italian Association of Free Believers" founded in 1912 by Gaetano Conte, with principal center in Florence, are Unitarians. They published the Riforma italiana, Bollettino della Associazione italiana di liberi credenti; a title that was changed in 1921 to that of Progresso religioso, Rivista mensile del movimento contemporaneo.

4. Other a. sects

Among the a. one must also number the Swedenborgians. To the question put to him by Thomas Hartley, Swedenborg in fact replied: « Sacrosancta Trinitas in una persona persipenda est sicut divinum esse, divinum humanum et divinum procedens, sicut anima, corpus et virtus seu operatio ».

The Scientists (Christian Science) regard the book of M. Baker Eddy (v.) as revealed, in which one reads: « God the Father is nothing but a principle, he is not a being »; « Life, truth and love constitute the Triune God or the threefold divine principle »; « God without man would be a non-entity », etc.

The Quakers, although they profess orthodox doctrines on the mystery of the Trinity, do not wish to hear its name. In the article of faith on the Trinity there is the phrase: « Of the Three that bear witness in heaven »; and it is added there that one must avoid the use of terms that are not found in Holy Scripture.

For the 2nd period. - Th. McCrie, Histoire des progrès et de l'extinction de la Réforme en Italie au seizième siècle, Paris 1831; R. Wallace, Antitrinitarian Biography, III, London 1850; C. Cantù, Gli Eretici d'Italia, 3 vols., Milan 1865-66; P. Sbarbaro, Da Socino a Mazzini, Rome 1886; Fr. Church, The Italian Reformers, London 1932; D. Cantimori and E. Feist, Testi raccolti per la storia degli eretici italiani del sec. XVI in Europa, Rome 1937; D. Cantimori, Gli Eretici Italiani del Cinquecento, Florence 1939.

For the 3rd period. - Besides the two Italian reviews mentioned: F. R. Beard, Unitarism Exhibited in its Actual Condition, London 1846; Ch. de Rémusat, Channing, sa vie et ses oeuvres, Paris 1857; J. Freeman Clarke, Orthodoxy, its Truths and Errors, Boston 1866; W. Lloyd, The Story of the Protestant Divest and English Unitarianism, London 1899; W. G. Tarrant, The Story and Significance of the Unitarian Movement, London 1910; I. W. Cooke, Unitarism in America, Boston 1910; Freedom and Truth, Modern Views of Unitarian Christianity, London 1923; J. Sunderland, What do Unitarians Believe, Boston 1926; Unitarian Year-Book, Boston 1924-25, 1931.

For the other a. sects. - M. Baker and G. Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scripture, 1968 ed., Boston 1896; Quartiere, novem de Trinitate... ad Emmausolem Swedenborg proponitae a Thomas Hartley, cum Illus responsis, New York 1904; W. Lefroy, Christian Science Contrasted with Christian Faith and with Itself, London 1906; Th. Evans, A Concise Account of the Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia n.d.

Camillo Crivelli