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Christian era , the Son was considered to be inferior to the Father , and regarded as a created being . Among writers of this class we may Tank the learned Ecclesiastical Historian , Mostieim ; Matthias Flacius Ilyricus , one of the most able and zealous of the Lutheran Reformers ; M . Jurieu , an eminent Protestant divine , and rigorous defender of the orthodox faith ; and Dionysius Petavius , the celebrated Jesuit . Nor is this all ; for Justin
Martyr , an eminent Christian father of the second century , speaking of Christ's Deity , expresses himself more like an humble apologist , introducing a new doctrine , than the advocate of a system which had been sanctioned and rendered venerable by time ; and Tertullian , who flourished a few years later than Justin , gives his direct testimony to the fact , that Unitarianism was the doctrine held by the mass of unlearned Christians of the Latin as well as the Greek church in his own age .
Nor let it be supposed that Unitarianism had no advocates in ancient times among the learned . Several are mentioned by ecclesiastical writers , whom the orthodox found it impossible , with all their threats , to silence , and who clung to the primitive doctrine concerning Christ amidst evil report as well as good report . Of these it may be deemed sufficient to mention the names of Paul of Samosata , Bishop of Antioch ; Marcellus , Bishop of Ancyra ; and Photinus , Bishop of Sirmium ; men who were equal in learning and in piety to any of their contemporaries , and of whom any denomination of Christians might be justly proud .
We pass over the dark ages as a barren desert , without fertility and without interest , and hasten on to the period of the Reformation , associated with which we find the names of men whose praises are loudly celebrated by Protestants of all classes . But why are we so seldom reminded of those eminent Reformers who embraced antitrinitarian sentiments , and were inferior to none of their contemporaries in learning or in virtue ? Why are the names and labours of these illustrious servants of God so studiously passed over , as if the very pen which recorded , or the very breath which
uttered them , were loaded with contagion ? Far as we are from wishing to disparage such men as Luther or Calvin , and those of similar sentiments , who co-operated with them in the great work of reformation during the sixteenth century , we cannot help observing that they left their great undertaking only partially accomplished ; and we confess it has always appeared to us that no award was ever made with more judgment and impartiality than that which is conveyed in the following lines , said to have been inscribed upon the tomb of Faustus Socinus :
Tota licet Babylon , destruxit tccta Luthcrus , Muros Calvin us , sod funduincntn Socinus . The revival of Unitarianism at the period of the Reformation , and the rapid progress which it made in Italy , Poland , Transylvania , and other countries , would form an interesting subject for the pen of the historian , in the prosecution of which a number of important facts might be brought to light that are as yet scarcely known to the great mass of English readers .
A hasty sketch of this kind is prefixed to Dr . T . Rees ' s " Translation of the Racovian Catechism , " and another to the late Dr . Toulmin ' s " Memoirs of the Life of F . Socinus . " The Rev . Theoph . Lindsey has also collected many curious and interesting facts relating to this subject in his " Historical View of the State of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship , from the Reformation to our own Times . " But the inquiry has never been pursued to its full extent by any English writer ; and any person who would undertake it , and
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230 Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 230, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/14/
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