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He was sentenced to have his tongue pierced , for his alleged blasphemy ; to have his hands and feet cut off , for having thrown down and trodden upon the crucifix ; to be beheaded for his rebellious contumacy , in appealing from the first tribunal that had given decision against him ; and finally to be burnt at the stake for his heretical opinions . This sentence ,
horrible as it may appear , was , at the instigation of the Jesuits , executed in all its circumstances at Warsaw , on the 16 th of November , 1611 . " *— Pp . xxxii . xxxiii . The imprudence of some of the students in the College at Racovv in demolishing a public cross , furnished the enemies of the Unitarians with a
new pretext for persecution , and in the year 1638 , the Diet of Warsaw passed a decree that their church at Kacow should be closed , the college be broken up , the printing-house be demolished , and the ministers and professors be branded as infamous , proscribed and banished the State . This cruel measure was only the prehide to the decree of extermination
which was adopted against the Unitarians by the Diet of Warsaw in 1658 . On pain of death , they were required to quit the kingdom or renounce their faith . Three years were allowed them for compliance with the cruel mandate , but at the expiration of two years it was , on some frivolous ^ pretence , put into immediate operation .
" This unexpected ordinance reduced them to the greatest difficulties . Their enemies threw every impediment in the way to their settling their affairs . Many found it wholly impossible to dispose of their property at ^ ny price ;—others were
obliged to part with it for what was considerably beneath its value j so that several of the noble and wealthy families who still adhered to the party , were reduced nearly to a level with the poorest among them . In these trying circumstances
some made an outward show of abandoning their faith , and thus saved themselves from the evils of exile;—but a very large proportion , rather than sacrifice their conscience at thte throue of
mimau -power , submitted to the painful condition of being separated for ever from their native Jand ; These undaunted confessor ? , kAnmk- ' Wf fy ' . t ^ dus&nd individuals of VoW tte $ e& tod $ 11 ages , yielding to thei * hard destiny , took * final
• " Brevis Relatio de Johannis Tyseo-?< ai M&tyrfd < ad" W ^** S&flK pbl . Aati-trta . pi ' 203 . " > ?
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leave of their country , and wandered with uncertain steps , friendless an £ destitute , to Seek an asylum in some foreign clime . Of this honourable band about four hundred proceeded to Transylvania and Hungary : many bent their steps towards Prussia , Silesia , and Moravia ;
others emigrated to Holland and the Low Countries , and some passed over to England . Thus was terminated the public profession of Unitarianism in the kingdom of Poland , about one hundred and twenty years after its first introduction
into that country , and after giving birth to a host of advocates , distinguished equally by their learning , their talents and their virtues , who were an ornament to their age and an honpur to human nature . "— -tPp . xxxix . —xli .
Before this disastrous period , Unitarianism had been established in Transylvania * through the influence of Biandrata ; but the history of this doctrine , in this country , is already given in Mr . Kenrick ' s valuable paper at the beginning of the present Number , to which we refer the reader .
The origin of the appellation Unitarian , is doubtful . Dr . T . Rees states from Bod , who wrote a history of the Unitarians in Transylvania , that it was derived from the union of the Reformed of all parties in passing an edict in 1568 , securing to persons of all denominations the free exercise of their
religion . The title was afterwards restricted , he adds , to those persons who maintained that the Father alone was the true and eternal God . ( In trod „ pp . xliii . xliv ., Note . ) But a similar denomination had been long before applied to the impugners of the Trinity— " Sabelliam olim k Prudentic dicti sunt Unionitce et Monarchici- " *
And it is curious that the appellation of Trinitarians was applied in one of the Bulls of the Papal Court to persons that , on the subject of the Trinity-, were heretical— " Anabaptistos , Trinitarios et k Christiana fide apostatas . "f-The peace of the Unitarian church in Transylvania was disturbed by the dispute between Biandrata and Davidis on the invocation of Christ , in which .
Socinus was implicated ., Our author details very minutely the progress of this schism , and of the disgraceful persecution set on foot against X > avidi& by bis Unitarian brethren , and princi * Bock / His * AirtNrKtf TMI . p- IV t lbi&
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Review . T — Dr . . Reefs Racovlan Catechism . 237
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1820, page 237, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2487/page/45/
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