Unitarianism, as a Christian denominational family of churches, was first defined in Poland-Lithuania and Transylvania in the late 16th century. It was then further developed in England and America until the early 19th century, although theological ancestors are to be found as far back as the early days of Christianity. It matured and reached its classical form in the middle 19th century. Later historical development has been diverse in different countries.
Historical antecedents First century
Scholars have noted that the early first century form of Christianity sprang from Judaism. Hence they say "they [the earliest Christians] also incorporated the insistent monotheism of Judaism". Hence it is thought by many historians that the trinity doctrine "developed gradually over several centuries and through many controversies." These scholars argue that "It was the Nicene Council and even more especially the Athanasian Creed that first gave the dogma its definite formulation". One proponent of this viewpoint, scholar Jerome H. Neyrey, Ph.D. says "Jesus honors God by confessing the traditional and orthodox understanding of Israel's God" and that "He understands Israel's God in a completely traditional way."
Fourth century Arianism was a position that God created Jesus; the presbyter Arius believed it. This view remained popular throughout much of Eastern and Western empires even after the Council of Nicea declared the idea heretical in 325 A.D. The binitarian reading of Arius' thesis was explicitly condemned as heresy at the First Council of Constantinople in 381 A.D.
7th-century Islam Among proponents of the revisionist school of Islamic studies positions viewing early Islam as a unitarian Christian group have found a number of academic supporters, such as Günter Lüling, who argues the original Quran was a unitarian Christian text opposed to the trinity. Along similar lines Karl-Heinz Ohlig has suggested that the person of Muhammad was not central to early Islam at all, and that early stage Islam was an Arabic Christian sect which had objections to the concept of the trinity, and that the later hadith and biographies are in large part legends, instrumental in severing Islam from its Christian roots and building a full-blown new religion.Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Der frühe Islam, 2007, Volker Popp supports Ohlig's thesis based on archeological evidence. Édouard-Marie Gallez believes early Islam to have been a development within the unitarian anti-Nicene Judeo-Christian Nazarene sect of Christianity. A related thesis to the aforementioned ones is advanced by Fred Donner who argues that early Islam was a interfaith unitarian Believers Movement addressed to both Christians and Jews.
In the pre-modern 8th-century account of John of Damascus Islam is described as a Christian heresy led by Muhammad, whom he deems an Arian based on his (assumed) denial of the trinity.
The Protestant Reformation In many European countries, the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century saw an outbreak, to a greater or lesser degree, of anti-Trinitarian opinion (also known as nontrinitarianism).Pocket Dictionary of Church History Nathan P. Feldmeth p135 "Unitarianism. Unitarians emerged from Protestant Christian beginnings in the sixteenth century with a central focus on the unity of God and subsequent denial of the doctrine of the Trinity" Some doubt has been raised about the Reformers' commitment to previous beliefs, including previous Christology: John Henry Newman, who wrote, "Luther himself at one time rejected the Apocalypse, called the Epistle of St. James straminea ['straw'], condemned the word 'Trinity,' fell into a kind of Eutychianism in his view of the Holy Eucharist, and in a particular case sanctioned bigamy. Calvinism, again, in various distinct countries, has become Socinianism, and Calvin himself seems to have denied our Lord's Eternal Sonship and ridiculed the Nicene Creed. Another evidence, then, of the faithfulness of an ultimate development is its definite anticipation at an early period in the history of the idea to which it belongs."John Henry Newman (1878), An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, 1960 reprint, Garden City, NY: Image Books, Part II, "Doctrinal Developments Viewed Relatively to Doctrinal Corruption", Ch. V, "Genuine Development Contrasted with Corruptions", § 6, "Sixth Note: Conservative Action upon Its Past", p. 200. [Newman's emphases.]
Suppressed as a rule in individual cases, this type of doctrine ultimately became the badge of separate religious communities, in Poland, Hungary and, at a much later date, England. By contrast, Sabellianism (also known as modalism, modalistic monarchianism, or modal monarchism) is the nontrinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected Son, and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three distinct persons in God Himself.
Along with the fundamental doctrine, certain characteristics have always marked those who profess unitarianism: a large degree of tolerance, a historical study of scripture, a minimizing of essentials, and a repugnance to formulated creed.
Martin Cellarius (1499–1564), a friend of Luther, and Hans Denck (1500–1527) usually are considered the first literary pioneers of the movement; the anti-Trinitarian position of Ludwig Haetzer did not become public until after his execution (1529) for Anabaptism. Luther himself was opposed to the Unitarian movement, and viewed the founder of Islam, Muhammad, as an adherent to the teachings of Arius.
Michael Servetus (1511?–1553) stimulated thought in this direction and heavily influenced other reformers both by his writings and by his death at the stake. In 1531, he had published his theological treatise De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors About the Trinity), in which he rejected the Nicene dogma of the Trinity and proposed that the Son was the union of the divine Logos with the man Jesus, miraculously born from the Virgin Mary through the intervention of God's spirit. This was generally interpreted as a denial of the Trinitarian dogma. (Actually, Servetus had described the Trinity as a "three-headed Cerberus" and "three ghosts", which only led believers to confusion and error.) Servetus expanded his ideas on the nature of God and Christ 20 years later in his major work, Christianismi Restitutio (The Restoration of Christianity), which caused his burning at the stake in Calvin's Geneva (as well as in effigy by the Catholic Inquisition in France) in 1553 . Nowadays, most Unitarians see Servetus as their pioneer and first martyr, and his thought was a remarkable influence in the beginnings of Polish and Transylvanian anti-Trinitarian churches,See Stanislas Kot, "L'influence de Servet sur le mouvement atitrinitarien en Pologne et en Transylvanie", in B. Becker (Ed.), Autour de Michel Servet et de Sebastien Castellion, Haarlem, 1953. even though his Arian views on Jesus Christ (for example, retaining belief in the pre-existence of Christ) were different from those of the Polish Socinians (rejecting belief in Jesus' pre-existence), and again from the generation of Thomas Belsham (rejecting also the virgin birth), and very different from what the Unitarian Church generally believes today.
The Anabaptist Council of Venice 1550 marks the start of a formal but underground anti-Trinitarian movement in Italy, led by men such as Matteo Gribaldi. The Italian exiles spread anti-Trinitarian views to Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Transylvania, and Holland.
The Dialogues (1563) of Bernardino Ochino, while defending the Trinity, stated objections and difficulties with a force that captivated many. In his 27th Dialogue, Ochino points to Hungary as a possible home of religious liberty. And in Poland and Hungary definitely anti-Trinitarian religious communities first formed and were tolerated.
Classical period of Unitarianism
Poland Scattered expressions of anti-Trinitarian opinion appeared in Poland early. At the age of 80, Catherine, wife of Melchior Vogel or Weygel, was burned at Cracow (1539) for apostasy; whether her views embraced more than deism is not clear. The first synod of the (Calvinist) Reformed Church took place in 1555; the second Synod (1556) faced the theological challenges of Grzegorz Paweł z Brzezin (Gregory Pauli) and Peter Gonesius (Piotr z Goniądza), who were aware of the works of Servetus and of Italian anti-Trinitarians such as Matteo Gribaldi. The arrival of Giorgio Biandrata in 1558 furnished the party with a temporary leader.
The term "Unitarian" first appeared as unitaria religio in a document of the Diet of Lécfalva, Transylvania on 25 October 1600, though it was not widely used in Transylvania until 1638, when the formal recepta Unitaria Religio was published. The Polish Brethren began as a grouping of Arians and Unitarians who split from the Polish Calvinist Church in 1565,e.g. Encyclopedia of Protestantism: Hans Joachim Hillerbrand – 2003 "The religious doctrines of the Polish Unitarians after the Rakow episode retained many Calvinist elements" though by 1580 the Unitarian views of Fausto Sozzini (hence the adjective Socinian) had become the majority. Sozzini's grandson Andrzej Wiszowaty Sr. in 1665-1668 published Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant (Library of the Polish Brethren who are called Unitarians 4 vols. 1665–69). The name was introduced into English by the Socinian Henry Hedworth in 1673. Afterwards, the term was commonly used in English, though their detractors continued to label both Arian and Unitarian views as "Socinian".
In 1565, the Diet (Sejm) of Piotrków excluded anti-Trinitarians from the existing synod of the Polish Reformed Church (henceforth the Ecclesia maior), and Unitarians began to hold their own synods as the Ecclesia minor. Known by various other names (of which Polish brethren and Arian were the most common), at no time in its history did this body adopt for itself any designation other than "Christian". Originally Arian (but excluding any worship of Christ) and Anabaptist, the Minor Church was (by 1588) brought round to the views of Fausto Sozzini, who had settled in Poland in 1579 and who denied the pre-existence of Christ, while accepting the virgin birth (see Socinianism).
In 1602, the nobleman Jakub Sienieński established among the anti-Trinitarian community founded by his father at Raków, Kielce County the Racovian Academy and a printing-press, from which the Racovian Catechism was issued in 1605. In 1610, a Catholic reaction led by Jesuits began. The establishment at Raków was suppressed in 1638, after two boys allegedly pelted a crucifix outside the town.
For 20 years (1639–1659), the Arians were tolerated, but public opinion widely considered them as collaborators with Sweden during The Deluge, and in 1660 the Polish Diet gave anti-Trinitarians the option of conformity or exile. The Ecclesia minor or Minor Church included many Polish magnates, but their adoption of the views of Sozzini, which precluded Christians from magisterial office, rendered them politically powerless.
The execution of the decree, hastened by a year, took place in 1660. While some conformed, a large number made their way to the Netherlands, where the Remonstrants admitted them to membership on the basis of the Apostles' Creed. Others, like Christopher Crell, went to the German frontier, Prussia, and Lithuania. A contingent settled in Transylvania, not joining the Unitarian Church, but maintaining a distinct organization at Kolozsvár until 1793.