1

question after men had thus ventured, in spite of their spiritual shackles, to think for themselves, and to bring the received opinions to the test of the Scriptures, the doctrine of the Trinity appears to have been one of the first. In several of the writings of this period traces incidentally occur of antitrinitarian sentiments, which were regarded with deep horror, and assailed in the severest terms of reprobation, both by persons who still maintained their fidelity to the Roman Church, and by those who had begun to arraign the purity of its faith in other matters. It seems probable, however, that these censures were drawn forth by the doubts and insinuations which had

garded the Pope as Antichrist. According to some of their published Confessions, they seem to have held the common opinion on the subject of the Trinity; but the following extract from a confession inserted in a curious old work, intituled Histoire des Vaudois, par Jean Paul Perrin, printed at Geneva in 1618, will furnish some ground of suspicion that on this point all their churches were not strictly orthodox. "1. Nous croyons qu'il n'est qu'vn seul Dieu qui est Esprit, createur de toutes choses, Pere de tous, qui est sur tous, et par toutes choses, et en nous tous, lequel on doit adorer en esprit et verité, auquel seul attendons, et donnons gloire de nostre vie, nourriture, vestement, santé, maladie, prosperité, et adversité, l'aimons comme autheur de toute bonté, le craignons, comme celuy qui cognoit les cœurs. 2. Nous croyons que Jesus Christ est le Fils de l'image du Pere; qu'en buy habite toute plenitude de diuinité; par lequel nous cognoissons le Pere, lequel est nostre Mediateur et aduocat, et n'y a point d'autre nom sous le ciel donné aux hommes, auquel il nous faille estre sauués: au nom duquel seul nous invoquons le Pere, et n'vsons d'autres oraisons que de celles qui sont contenues en l'Escriture Saincte, ou concordantes a icelles en substance. 3. Nous croyons que le Sainct Esprit est nostre consolateur, procedant du Pere et du Fils, par l'inspiration duquel nous faisons prieres, estans par luy renouvelés, lequel fait toutes bonnes œuures en nous, et pur luy auons cognoissance de toute verité.

in some cases been hinted, more or less obscurely, respecting this doctrine*, rather than by any public renunciation of it; of which no well attested instance is recorded, until after the Reformation had made some progress. As far as can be collected from the accusations of their adversaries, the persons who first openly impugned this tenet were ANABAPTISTS of Germany and Holland;—a designation under which were comprised, not only those wild and infuriate visionaries who were at one time the terror of all Europe, but likewise men of high character and reputation, distinguished by their solid learning, their rational

*Of the mode of impugning the popular creed which was adopted at this period, we have two remarkable examples in the persons of Bernard Ochin and Lælius Socinus. Ochin is charged with having pursued this method to bring some of the doctrines of the Catholic Church into disrepute in his public discourses, while he adhered to her communion, stating difficulties and objections, and omitting to answer them, or subjoining unsatisfactory solutions. At a later period of his life he did the same, in respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, through the press. In his celebrated Dialogues, (Dial. xx. et xxi. lib. ii. pp. 146 et seqq.) in discussing this subject, he insi nuates strong objections to the popular notion, but adduces very feeble arguments in its support; and plainly shows that he has not without reason been charged with having embraced antitrinitarian sentiments. Lælius Socinus pursued the same plan during his residence in Switzerland, never, seemingly, openly avowing his own opinions, but embodying his objec tions and difficulties in the form of questions, which he submitted, with apparent modesty and diffidence, for the solution of the great luminaries of the Reformation. The freedom of some of these questions exposed him to the suspicion of heresy, and had nearly involved him in difficulties; and others of them drew from Calvin a very angry letter, in which he pettishly observes-Si plura desideras aliunde petenda sunt. Vide Bock, Hist. Antitrin. tom. ii. p. 485 &c. et p. 609. a 2

piety,

piety, and enlightened zeal for divine truth; who shared the obloquy attached to their denomination in consequence of denying to the rite of infant baptism the obligation of a Christian institution.

The person who is considered to have been the earliest public advocate of antitrinitarianism, is Martin Cellarius, a native of Stutgard. He was born in the year 1499, and educated at the university of Wittemberg, where he is said to have studied with singular success polite literature, philosophy, and theology, the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriae languages. His learning and talents secured for him the warm friendship of Luther and Melancthon, whose principles he had embraced. Being deputed to hold a public disputation with Stubner and Stork, two of the founders of the German Anabaptists, he yielded to the arguments of his acute and learned opponents, and went over to their party; but pursuing his inquiries further than they had done, relinquished, among other tenets, the doctrine of the Trinity. His defection from the Lutheran cause, and his open avowal of antitrinitarian sentiments, exposed him to various persecutions, to escape which he removed in 1536 to Basil in Switzerland, where he remained until his death in the year 1564. On his settlement in this city he took the name of Borrhaus, being a translation of his original surname into the corresponding Greek term, and was appointed professor of rhetoric and philosophy. He is mentioned by Faustus Socinus in high terms of eulogy as the friend of his uncle Lælius; and the ministers of Tran

sylvania

sylvania class him with Servetus and Erasmus, as appointed by God to convey to mankind extraordinary information concerning himself and Jesus Christ.. Andrew Althamerus, who wrote a work against Cellarius, represents him as having revived the errors of Paul of Samosata, &c. and maintained that Jesus Christ was a mere human prophet*.

Contemporary with Cellarius was Lewis Hetzer, a Dutchman by birth, who is usually classed among the anabaptists, but without sufficient evidence t. He settled at Zurich in the year 1523. Hetzer was a man of great learning, and deeply versed in the original languages of the Scriptures, of which he exhibited undeniable proof in a German translation of all the books of the prophets, which he published, in 1527, in conjunction with John Denkius. Sandius states that in his theological sentiments he was manifestly and certainly an Arian, and represents him as having taught that the Father alone was the true God; that Christ was inferior to the Father, and of a different essence; that there were not three persons in the godhead; and that God was neither essence nor person in the sense in which those terms are commonly em

*Meshovii Hist. Anabaptistica, p. 3. This writer calls him Matthias Cellarius. Bock, Hist. Antitrin. tom. ii. pp. 223 et seqq. Sandii Bibliotheca Antitrinitar. p. 15, who quotesi the words of the ministers of Sarmatia and Transylvania in their work De falsa et vera cognitione Dei: "Luthero et Zwinglio dedit [Deus] referendos et justificationis et rei sacramenturia fructus; Martino vero Cellario, Serveto, et Erasmo Roterodamo fructus alios præcipuos cognitionis veri Dei et Christi, &c.

t Bock, ubi supra, tom. ii. p. 232.

ployed.

ployed*. He wrote a work against the deity of Christ, which however was never published; the manuscript having fallen into the hands of Zwinglius was suppressed. Hetzer was put to death by the magistrates of Constance in the year 1529, but historians disagree as to the cause and the manner of his punishment. Seckendorfft affirms that he was burnt at the stake for his heretical opinions; but Sandius and others, concurring with this writer as to the reason of his condemnation, state, and, it would seem, more correctly, that he was beheaded 1. But some, whose relation the learned Bock has followed, assert that he suffered on account of his licentious principles and conduct. This statement, however, which is grounded on the representation of enemies, ought to be received with much caution. At this period it was customary to implicate in the guilt of the most criminal of the anabaptist sect all whose dissent from the popular faith caused them to be ranked under this denomination; and a denial of the supreme deity of Christ was sufficient to expose any individual, however exemplary in his morals, to the imputation of crimes the most abhorrent to his feelings. This consideration should incline us to believe with Sandius and Seckendorff, both most respectable authorities, that Hetzer's real offence was what the latter styles his blasphemies against God §.

* Nucleus Hist. Eccles. 4to. p. 424. Bibl. Antitrin. p. 16. + Hist. Lutheran. lib. ii. p. 145.

Bibl. Antitrin. p. 17.

Bock, ubi supra, tom. ii. p. 231,