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embody in an English dress all which can be collected upon the subject , would deserve well of the religious public . As one step towards this great undertaking , we propose giving a series o £ biographical sketches of the more celebrated among the continental Unitarians . Stutgard , the capital of Wirtemberg , had the honour of giving birth to the first Protestant who openly avowed antitrinitarian sentiments . The name of this father of modern Unttarianistn was Martin Cellari ^ . He was
born in the year 1499 , and died in 1564 . He studied philosophy at the University of Wittemberg , under Luther , and made great proficiency in those branches of science and literature which were commonly cultivated among the learned of that age . He was also distinguished , in after life , as an oriental scholar and a theologian . He first rose into eminence about the year ] 520 ; and when Luther threw off the Papal yoke , Cellarius , who was
honoured with the friendship and esteem of the great Reformer , was among the first of those who embraced his principles . But it soon became evident that he was not destined to be a servile follower of Luther , or any other merely human teacher . Having engaged in a controversy with Stubner and Storck , two of the most active leaders of the German Anabaptists , he was convinced by their arguments , and had the candour to acknowledge and retract his errors . Hornbeck informs us that it was while Cellarius was
connected with this party that he first became an author ; but , pursuing his religious inquiries with a freedom previously unknown in that age , he was led ultimately to embrace Unitarian sentiments , and became very zealous for their diffusion . The public profession , however , of these new opinions , which were equally obnoxious to Catholics and Protestants , exposed him to a succession of persecutions , and compelled him , in the year 1536 , to fly for safety and protection into Switzerland , where he assumed the name of Borrhaus , and spent the remainder of his life in comparative tranquillity .
The ministers of Sarmatia and Transylvania , speaking of Cellarius , say , * ' What has not Martin Celiarius attempted that he might clear the way for posterity ?—Read his writings . " In another place they observe , that " God gave to Luther and Zuinglius the honour of reforming the received doctrines concerning Justification and the Eucharist ; but that it was Martin Cellarius , Servetus , and Erasmus , who were first employed by him as instruments in inculcating a knowledge of the true God , and of Christ . " In a manuscript
history of the life of Servetus , attributed by AUwoerden to Castalio , honourable mention is made of Cellarius , who is described as " chief professor of theology in the city of Geneva" at the time of Servetus ' s martyrdom , and is mentioned as the principal opponent of Calvin in that dark transaction . Faustus Socinus , in a letter to Peter Statorius , dated October 15 , 1590 , says that his uncle Lselius collected testimonies concerning Cellarius ; and if this collection were still in existence it would probably throw great light upon the early history of the Protestant Reformation . Andrew Aithamer , one of the Reformers who pushed his sentiments to the very verge of
Antinomianlsm , charges Cellarius with holding the opinions of Paul of Samosata , and represents him as having taught that Jesus Christ was a human prophet . Whatever degree of truth there may be in this charge , it is certain that Cellarius lived and died a firm believer in the doctrine of the Divine Unity . Besides several philosophical essays , he wrote a treatise " on the Works of God , " " Commentaries on Ecclesiastes , on the Five Books of Moses , on the Books of Joshua , Judges , Ruth , Samuel , and Kings , on Isaiah and the Apocalypse , and on the Book of Job , " and published other theological works .
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Biographical Notices of Eminent Continental Unitarians . 23 i
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 231, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/15/
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