of birth and genius, yet their results, in most places, did not answer the
expectations of their projectors. No where did there seem to be a great
er prospect of success, than in the university of Altorf in the territory of
Nuremberg. For here Ernest Sohner, a physician and Peripatetic philos
opher, a man of great acuteness and subtilty, and a professor of philoso
phy, who had joined the Socinians while he resided in Holland, found it the
more easy to instil into the minds of his hearers the doctrines of his new
brethren, because he was in high reputation for learning and genuine piety.
But after his death in 1612, this new Socinian party, being deprived of their
guide and head, could not manage their affairs so craftily as to elude the
vigilance of the other professors in the university. Hence, the whole
matter being fully exposed in 1616, this already mature and daily increas
ing pest was suddenly arrested and destroyed, by the zealous and dexter
ous severity of the Nuremberg magistrates. The foreigners who were
infected with the heresy, saved themselves by flight ; the infected citizens
of Nuremberg, allowed themselves to be reclaimed, and returned to correct
principles. (1)

(1) A very full and learned history of this by Gebauer, Leipsic, 1729, 2 vols. 4to.

whole business, derived chiefly from unpub- [Sohner kept up a brisk correspondence with

lished documents and papers, was drawn up the Polish Socinians ; who sent a numbei

DV a late ^vvine of the university of Altorf, of Polish youth to Altorf, with their private

(justavus George Zeltner, entitfed Historia tutors, to aid in spreading Socinian prinoi-

Crypto Socinismi Altorfinae quondam Acad- pies. It was intended, not only to diffuse

r tniae infesti arcana ; which vas published these principles in and around Altorf, but to



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS AND ARIANS. 475

3. Neither could the Socinian sect long hold that high ground, which
they appeared to occupy in Poland. (2) The chief pillar that supported it,
was removed in the year 1638, by a decree of the Polish diet. For in this
year, some students of the school at Rakow wantonly threw stones at a
wooden statue of our Saviour extended on the cross, and demolished it.
For this offence the papists took such severe revenge, that they procured
the fatal law to be enacted at Warsaw, which commanded the school at
Rakow to be broken up, the instructors to be banished in disgrace, the
printing establishment to be destroyed, and the Socinian church to be shut
up. All this was executed forthwith, and without abatement, in spite of
all the efforts which the powerful patrons of the sect could put forth. (3)
This first calamity was the harbinger of that dire tempest, which twenty
years after entirely prostrated the glory and prosperity of the sect. For
in a diet at Warsaw in 1658, all the Socinians dispersed throughout Po-
land, were commanded to quit the country ; and it was made a capital
offence, either to profess their doctrines, or to harbour others who profess,
ed them. Three years were allowed the proscribed, in which to dispose
of their property and settle their affairs. But soon after, the cruelty of
their enemies reduced it to two years. Finally, in the year 1661, the tre
mendous edict was renewed ; and all the Socinians that remained, were
most inhumanly driven from Poland, with immense loss not merely of
property, but also of the health and the lives of many persons. (4)

4. A part of the exiles took their course towards Transylvania : and
nearly all these perished by diverse calamities. (5) Others were dispers
ed in the provinces adjacent to Poland, Silesia, Brandenburg, and Prussia ;
where their posterity still remain, scattered here and there. A consider
able number of the more respectable families settled for a time at Creutz-
burg in Silesia, under the protection of the duke of Brieg.(6) Others went
to more distant countries, Holland, England, Holstein, and Denmark, to
see if they could obtain a comfortable settlement for themselves and their
brethren. The most active and zealous in such embassies, was, Stanislaus
Lubieniezky, a very learned Polish knight, who rendered himself accepta
ble to great men by his eloquence, politeness, and sagacity. In the years
1661 and 1662, he came very near to obtaining a secure residence for the
Socinians at Altona, from Frederic III. king of Denmark; and in 1662,
at Frederickstadt, from Christ. Albert, duke of Holstein ; and at Manheim,
from Charles Lewis, the elector Palatine. But all his efforts and expecta-

communicate them also to other German uni- Polonica?, lib. iii., cap. xvii., xviii., p. 279,

versities. See Schroeckh s Kirchengesch. &c. Equitis Poloni Vindiciae pro Unitarior.

seit der Reformation, vol. v., p. 625, &c. in Polonia religionis libertate ; in Sa,n(T*

TV.] Biblioth. Antitrinit , p. 267, and many others.

(2) On the flourishing state of the Socin- (5) [Some say there were 380 of these ref-
ian cause, and especially of the Racovian ugees ; others say, 500. On the borders ol
Bchool, under the rectorship of Martin Rua- Hungary, they were assaulted and plundered,
rws, see Jo. Mailer s Cimbria Litterata, torn, so that when they arrived at Clausenburg in
i., p. 572; in his life of Ruarus, a very Transylvania, they were almost naked. Dis-
learned man of Holstein, who, it appears, ease now attacked them, and carried them
had embraced Socinianism. nearly all off. See J. G. Walch s Einleit.

(3) Epistolade Wissowatii vita, in Sand s in die Rel. Streit. aus d. Ev. Luth. Kirche.,
Bibliotheca Antitrinitaria, p. 233. Gust. vol. iv., p. 275. Von Einem. ]

Geo. Zcltner s Historia Crypto-Socinismi (6) Lubieniezky, Historia Reform Polon.,
Altorfini, vol. i.. p. 299. cap. xviii., p. 2S5, where there is quite a long

(4) Stanisl. Lubieniezhj, Historia Reform. Epistle ef the Creutzburgers.



476 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II. CHAP. VI.



tions were frustrated, by the remonstrances and entieaties of theologians,
in Denmark, by John Snaning, bishop of Seeland ; in Holstein, by John
Reinlolh, the general superintendent ; in the Palatinate, by John Lewis
Fabricius, [doctor and professor of theology at Heidelberg]. (7) The oth
ers who undertook such negotiations, had much less success than he : nor
could any nation of Europe be persuaded, to allow the opposers of Christ s
divinity freely to practice their worship among them.

5. Such therefore as remain of this unhappy people, live concealed
in various countries of Europe, especially in Brandenburg, Prussia, Eng.
land, and Holland ; and hold here and there clandestine meetings for wor
ship : in England however, it is said they have public religious meetings,
with the connivance of the magistrates. (8) Some have united themselves
with the Arminians, and others with those Mennonites who are called Ga-
lenists : for neither of these sects requires its members very explicitly to
declare their religious belief. It is also said, that not a few of these dis
persed people are members of the society who bear the name of Collegi*



(7) See Sand s Bibliotheca Antitrinit., p.
165. The Life of Lubicniezky, prefixed to
his Historia Reformat. Polonicse, p. 7, 8. Jo.
Holler s Introductio in Historiam Cherson.
Cimbricse, pt. ii., p. 105, and Cimbria Litte-
rata, torn, ii., p. 487, &c. Jo. Henr. Hei
degger s Life of Jo. Lewis Fabricius, sub
joined to the works of the latter, p. 38.

(8) The Socinians residing in Branden-
jurg were accustomed, a few years ago, to
meet at stated times at Kb nigswald, a village
near Frankfort on the Oder. See Jourdain,
(for he is the author of the paper), Recueil
de Litterature, de philosophic, et de Histoire,
p. 44, Amsterd., 1731, 8vo. Theyalsopub-
lished at Berlin in 1716, a German Confes
sion of their faith ; which, with a confuta
tion of it, is printed in den Theologischen
Heb-Opfern, pt. x., p. 852. [In Prussian
Brandenburg they found some protection,
under the kindness of the electoral stadthold-
er, Bogislaus prince von Radzivil, who re
tained some Socinians at his court ; and per
haps they would also have obtained religious
freedom, under the electoral prince, Frederic
William, had not the states of the duchy in-
eisted on their expulsion. See Fred. Sam.
Bock s Historia Socinianismi Pmssici, p. 55,
&c., and Hartknoch s Preussische Kirchen-
historic, p. 646, &c. By the indulgence of
the above-named electoral prince, they ob
tained religions freedom in Brandenburg,
jSarticularly in New Mark, under the hope that
this little company would gradually unite it
self with the Protestant churches. They
likewise had churches and schools, at Lands-
berg, down to the end of the seventeenth
century. After that, they were expelled ;
the protection of the Schwerin family, which
they had hitherto enjoyed, now ceasing. In
Holland, the book of John Volkcl, a Socinian,
ie vcra Religione, 1642, was burned; and



the states of Holland, in 1653, forbid the pub
lication of Unitarian books, and all religious
meetings of Socinians. Yet Andrew Wis-
sowatius procured the famous Bibliotheca
Fratrum Polonorum to be printed at Amster
dam ; though the place is not mentioned on
the title-page : and the Socinians have been
allowed to reside there ; but without the pub
lic exercise of their religion. Many of them
likewise are concealed among the Menno
nites, and the other sects. Schl. " The
Socinians in England have never made any
figure as a community, but have rather been
dispersed among that great variety of sects,
that have arisen in a country, where liberty
displays its most glorious fruits, and at the
same time exhibits its most striking inconve
niences. Besides, few ecclesiastics or wri
ters of any note have adopted the theologi
cal system, now under consideration, in all
its branches. The Socinian doctrine rela
ting to the design and efficacy of the death
of Christ had indeed many abettors in Eng
land, during the seventeenth century; and
it may be presumed without temerity, that
its votaries are rather increased than dimin
ished, in the present ; but those divines who
have abandoned the Athanasian hypothesis,
concerning the Trinity of persons in the God
head, have more generally gone into tho
Arian and Semiarian notions of that inex
plicable subject, than into those of the So-
cinians, who deny that Jesus Christ existed
before his appearance in the human nature.
The famous John Biddle, after having main
tained both in public and private during the
reign of Charles I. and the protectorship 01
Cromwell, the Unitarian system, erected an
Independent congregation in London, which
is the only British church we have heard of, in
which all the peculiar doctrines of Socinian*
ism were inculcated." Mad.}



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS AND ARIANS.



477



ants. Being thus situated, they have not all been able to maintain that
form of religion, which their fathers transmitted to them. Accordingly,
Doth the learned and the unlearned, without restraint, explain variously
those doctrines which distinguish them from other sects : yet they all agree
in denying the divine Trinity, and the divinity and atonement of our Sa-
viour.(9)

6. Kindred with the Socinians, are the Arians ; some of whom obtain
ed celebrity in this century as authors, such as Christopher Sand, father
and son, and John Biddle ;(10) and likewise some of those comprehended
under the general appellation of Anti-Trinitarians or Unitarians. For this
[latter] name is applied to various sorts of persons, who agree in this only,
that they will not admit of any real distinction in the divine nature. The
name of Arians is likewise given to all those in general, who represent
our Saviour to be inferior to God the Father. And as this may be done in
various ways, it is manifest that this word, as now used, must have various
significations ; and that all, who are now called Arians, do not agree with
the ancient Arians ; nor do they all hold one and the same sentiment.



(9) This is evident from many proofs, and
among others from the example of Samuel
Crell, the most learned man among the So
cinians a few years since ; who, although he
sustained the office of a teacher among them,
yet deviated in many respects from the doc
trines of Socinus and of the Racovian cate
chism ; nor did he wish to be called a So-
r.inian, but an Artcmonite. See Journal Lit-
teraire, tome xvii., part i., p. 150, and my
own remaiks on this man, in my Syntagma
Diss. ad sanctiores disciplines pertinentium,
p. 352. Unschuldige Nachrichten, 1750, p.
942. Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. Grit.,
tome ii., pt. ii., p. 88, &c.

(10) Of both the Sands, Arnold [Kirchen-
und Ket.zerhistorie, vol. ii., book xvii., ch.
xiii., 25, p. 176, &c.], and others give ac
count. Respecting Biddle, see Nouveau
Dictionnaire Hist. Grit., tome i., pt. ii., p.
288, &c. [Christopher Sandius the elder,
was of Creuzberg in Prussia, studied law,
and filled various offices at Kb nigsberg ;
but was deprived in 1668, because he would
not renounce Arianism. After this, he lived
in retirement, and wrote only some vindica
tions and apologies. Yet he aided his son
in the composition of his works ; and out
living him, published some of them after his
death. The son called himself Christopher
Christopheri Sandius ; and wrote, besides
his Biblioth. Antitrinitariorum, his Nucleus
Historiae ecclesiast. on the four first centu
ries ; in which ho attempts to prove, that
the early fathers, before the council of Nice,
held Arian sentiments ; and that Athanasius
was the first that broached the common be-
hef among Christians respecting the Trinity.
He also wrote Interpretationes paradoxas
quatuor Evangeliorum ; de Origine animae ;
Probleina paradoxum de Spiritu Sancto ;
and, (undez the name of Herm. Cingallus),



Scriptura Trinitatis Revelatrix. The son
died in 1680, (aged 40), and the father in
1686. Schl. See also, concerning the
younger Sand, Rees Cyclopaedia, art. San
dius. John Biddle was born in 1615, edu
cated at Oxford, and became master of a
free school in Gloucester in 1641. Here he
soon became suspected of heresy ; and from
the year 1644, till his death in 1662, he
passed a large part of his time in various
prisons, and in exile. Whenever he was at
liberty, he wrote and preached in favour of
his sentiments ; which caused him to be fre
quently apprehended, and to undergo a crim
inal prosecution. In the year 1651, he pub
lished two Catechisms ; in which, Mr. Neal
says, he maintained, 1. " That God is con
fined to a certain place. 2. That he has a
bodily shape. 3. That he has passions.
4. That he is neither omnipotent nor un
changeable. 5. That we are not to believe,
three persons in the Godhead. 6. That
Jesus Christ has not the nature of God, but
only a divine lordship. 7. That he was not
a priest while upon earth. 8. That there is
no deity in the Holy Ghost." According
to Dr. Toulmin, these are not formal propo
sitions, but only questions in his catechisms ;
to which he subjoins texts of scripture by
way of answer. Thus, the first proposition
is this question : " Is not God, according to
the current of the scripture, in A certain
place, namely, in heaven 1" The answer
consists of twenty-nine passages of scripture,
which represent God, as " looking from
heaven," as " our father who art in heaven,"
&c. See Neal s Hist, of the Puritans, vol.
iv., p. 157, &c., ed. Boston, 1817. Toul-
min s Review of the Life, Character, and
Writings of Mr. John Biddle. Brook s
Lives of the Puritans, vol. iii., p. 411, <Stc.
Rees Cyclopaedia, art. Biddle. TV.]



478 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II. CHAP. VIL
CHAPTER VIL

HISTORY OF SOME MINOR SECTS.

$ 1, S. The Coliegiants. 3. The Labadists. <j 4. Bourignon and Poiret. $ 5. Tt

Philadelphia!! Society.

1. IT will be proper here to give some account of certain sects, which
could not be conveniently noticed in the history of the larger communities,
but which, for various reasons, should not be passed over in total silence.
While the Arminian disputes in Holland were most warm, in the year 1619,
arose that class of people, who hold sacred conventions twice a year at
Rheinsberg in Holland, not far from Leyden, and who are well known by
the name of Coliegiants. The institution oiginated from three brothers,
by the name of Koddeus or Van der Kodde ; namely John James, Hadrian,
and Gisbert ; obscure men, in rural life, but according to report, pious, well
acquainted with their Bibles, and opposed to religious controversies. They
were joined by one Anthony Cornelius, who was also an illiterate and ob
scure man. The descendants and followers of these men acquired the
name of Coliegiants, from the circumstance, that they called their assem
blies Colleges. All persons may be admitted into the society, who merely
account the Bible a divine book, and endeavour to live according to its
precepts, whatever may be their opinions respecting God and the Christian
religion. The brethren, who are considerably numerous in most of the
cities and villages of Holland, Friesland, and West Friesland, assemble
twice a week, namely on Sundays and Wednesdays ; and after singing a
hymn, and offering a prayer, they take up some passage of the New Tes-
tament, which they illustrate and explain. With the exception of females
whom they do not allow to speak in public, all persons of whatever rank
or order, are at liberty to bring forward their thoughts, and offer them to
the consideration of the brethren : and all are at liberty to oppose, mod
estly and soberly, whatever the brethren advance. They have printed
lists of the texts of scripture which are to be discussed at their several
meetings, so that each person may examine the passages at home, and come
prepared to speak. Twice a year the brethren assemble at Rheinsberg,
where they have spacious buildings, destined for the education of orphan
children, and for the reception of strangers ; and there spend four days
together, in listening to exhortations to holiness and love, and in celebrating
the Lord s supper. Here also, such as wish it, are baptized ; but it is in
the ancient manner, immersing the whole body in water. The brethren
of Friesland, at the present day, assemble once a year at Leeuwardcn, and
there observe the holy supper ; because Rheinsberg is too distant for them
conveniently to go thither. In short ; by the Coliegiants, we are to under
stand a very large society of persons of every sect and rank, who assume
me name of Christians, but entertain different views of Christ ; and which
is kept together, neither by rulers and teachers, nor by ecclesiastical laws,
nor by a formula of faith, nor lastly, by any set of rites, but solely by the
desire of improvement in scriptural knowledge and piety.(l)

(1) See the Dissertation sur les Usages en? et Rhinobourgeois ; which is in the snlen
lie ceux qu cn appelle en Hollande Collegi- did work : Ceremonies religie^ses de tout



HISTORY OF SOME MINOR SECTS. 479

2. In such an association, which allows all its members to think as
they please, and which has no formula of faith, dissensions and controver
sies cannot easily arise. Yet in the year 1672, there was no little dispute
between John and Paul Breitenburg, merchants of Rotterdam, and Abra
ham Lemmermann and Francis Cuiper, merchants of Amsterdam. Jolm
Breitenburg, (or Bredenburg, as he is generally called), had established a
peculiar sort of college, in which he expounded the religion of reason and
nature. This was disapproved of by Lemmermann and Cuiper, who wished
to have reason excluded from any combination with religion. . The dis
pute grew warmer, as Bredenburg diverged towards the opinions of Spinoza
and defended them, and yet wished to be regarded as a Christian. (2)
Some other minor contests arose at the same time. The result of the
whole was, that the Collegiants in 1686, were split into two opposing sects,
and held their conventions in separate edifices at Rheinsberg. But on the
death of the authors of these discords, near the beginning of the next cen
tury, the schism began to heal, and the Collegiants returned to their former
union and harmony. (3)

3. John Labadie, a Frenchman, eloquent, and of no contemptible ge-
nius, was first a Jesuit ; being dismissed from their society, he joined the
Reformed, and sustained the office of a preacher with reputation, in France,
Switzerland, and Holland. He at length set up a new sect, which had its
seat first at Middleburg in Zealand, then at Amsterdam, and afterwards,
in 1670, at Hervorden a town in Westphalia, under the patronage of Eliz
abeth princess Palatine, the abbess of Hervorden ; and being driven from
that place, it removed to Altona in 1672 ; and, on the death of its founder
in 1674, retired to the castle of Wiewert in West Friesland; but it has
long since become extinct. This sect was joined not only by several men

les peuples du monde, tome iv., p. 323, &c. that to be false in theology, which is true in

Also a book, published by the Collegiants philosophy. The best account of Breden-

themselves, entitled : De Oorspronck, Na- burg, is given by the learned Jew, Isaac

tuur, Handelwize en Oogmerk der zo gena- Orobio, in his Certamen philosophicum pro-

amde Rynburgsche Vergadering, Amsterd, pugnatae veritatis divinas et naturalis adver-

1736, 4to. sus Jo. Bredenburgii prinopia, ex quibua

(2) John Bredcnburg and Francis Cuiper, quod religio rationi repugnat, demonstrare

are well known to have been among the fol- nititur. This book, which contains Brcdcn-

lowers and the adversaries of Spinoza ; but lurg s demonstrations of the doctrines of

what sort of men they were, has been un- Spinoza, was first published, Amsterdam,

known generally. Bredenburg, a Collegi- 1703, 8vo, and then, Brussels, 1731, 12mo.

ant and a merchant of Rotterdam, openly Brcdenburg s adversary, Francis Cuiper,

taught the doctrine of Spinoza, and demon- rendered his name famous by his Arcana

strated its accordance with reason, mathemat- Atheismi detecta, written in opposition to

ically. At the same time, he not only pro- Bredenburg. Cuiper was a bookseller of

fessed to be a Christian, but actually explain- Amsterdam, and published among other

ed, recommended, and defended Christianity things, the Bibliotheca Fratrurn Polonorun.

in the meetings of the Collegiants, and de- seu Unitariorum. Those acquainted with

clared it to be of divine origin. This man literary history, know that Cuiper, on ac-

of a singular genius reconciled these two count of that very book above mentioned

contradictory things, by maintaining that which he wrote against Bredenburg, became

reason was opposed to religion ; but yet, suspected of Spinozism ; notwithstanding

that we ought to believe in the religion con- he was a Collcgiant, and a strenuous defend!

tained in the N. Testament scriptures, against er of Christianity, and of the harmc:iy of re-

tne most evident and the most conclusive son with religion.

mathematical demonstrations. He must (3) Besides those already named, see Si-

therefore have believed in a twofold truth, mon P red. Rues, Nachrichten vom Zustandfl

theological and mathematical ; and have held dcr Mcnnoniten, p. 267, &c.



80 BOOK IV. CENT. XVII. SEC. II. PART II. CHAP. VII.

of considerable learning, but also by that Minerva of the seventeenth cen
tury, the very learned lady of Utrecht, Anna Maria Schurmann. This
little community did not wish to be thought to differ from the Reformed,
in regard to religious opinions and doctrines, so much as in manners and
rules of discipline. For its lawgiver proposed a rigorous and austere
model of sanctity for his followers ; and conceived that not only the invisi.
ble church, but also the visible, ought to be a community of sanctified per.
sons, earnestly striving after perfection in holiness. Several of his tracts
are extant, which show him to have possessed a lively and ardent mind,
though not well disciplined and polished : and as persons of such a char
acter are easily betrayed by their natural temperament, into errors and
faults, I am not sure whether those witnesses are to be wholly disregarded,
who charge his life and doctrine with many blemishes. (4)

4. Nearly at the same time, Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte, a lady
of Flanders, boasted that she was inspired of God, and instructed super-
naturally to restore the Christian religion, which had become extinct and
lost among the disputes and contentions of the different sects. This wo
man, who possessed a voluble tongue, feelings uncommonly ardent, and
an imagination of inexhaustible fecundity, filled the provinces of Holland,