fit object of Christian 'worship.' The Humanitarian view, finally,
presented Jesus as a 'mere man,' i.e. a being not essentially different
in his nature from the rest of humankind. Modern Unitarianism, however,
usually avoids this kind of phrase; 'all minds,' said Channing, 'are of
one family.'
THE EARLIER MOVEMENT IN ENGLAND
I. THE UNITARIAN MARTYRS
The rise of any considerable body of opinion opposed to the cardinal
dogma of orthodoxy was preceded in England by a very strongly marked
effort to secure liberty of thought, and a corresponding plea for a
broadly comprehensive religious fellowship. The culmination of this
effort, is reached, for the period first, to be reviewed, in the
writings of _John Locke_ (1632-1704). This celebrated man, by his
powerful arguments for religious toleration and his defence of the
'reasonableness' of the Christian religion, exerted an influence of the
most important kind. But we must reach him by the path of his
predecessors in the same line. The principles of liberty of thought and
the broadest religious fellowship are warmly espoused by Unitarians, and
they look upon all who have advanced these principles as in spirit
related to them, however different their respective theological
conclusions may have been.
At the time of the Reformation a great deal of speculation broke forth
on points hitherto closed by the Church's authority, including the
fundamental doctrine of the Trinity. But, while this new ferment led to
departures from the received opinions in many countries, especially in
Poland and the Netherlands, the Protestant leaders maintained that upon
the great articles of the creeds they were still one with Rome, and in
fact they soon displayed an eagerness to stifle heresy. Men often fail
to see the logic of their own position, and many who claimed the right
to differ from Rome on points which Rome considered vital were unable to
grant that others had an equal right to differ from Luther, Calvin, or
an English State Church. The outrageous cruelty of Calvin towards the
Anti-trinitarian _Servetus_, whom he caused to be burned at Geneva in
1553, affords a glaring instance of this inconsistency. But a sad proof
is given that, about that time, even Anti-trinitarians themselves were
not always tolerant.
Among the countries where the orthodox dogma was most freely questioned
was Transylvania, adjacent to Hungary proper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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