Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/751

Rh UNICORN, an animal with one horn. The name is applicable and has sometimes been applied to the rhinoceros, which is, for example, the Sumatran unicorn of Marco Polo. But the figure usually associated with the name is the well-known heraldic one of an animal with the form of a horse or ass, save that a long straight horn with spiral twistings, like the tusk of the narwhal, projects from its forehead. The belief in the existence of a one-horned animal of this kind goes back to Aristotle (Part. An., iii. p. 663), who names as one-horned "the oryx and the Indian ass." Later descriptions of the Indian unicorn, e.g., that of Ælian (Nat. An., xvi. 20), are plainly influenced to some extent by accounts of the rhinoceros, but the authority of Aristotle determined the general form ascribed to the animal. The twisted horn, of which Julian already speaks, seems to have been got by referring to Aristotle's unicorn actual specimens taken from the narwhal; see Yule's Marco Polo, ii. 273. The ancient and mediaeval lore of the subject may be seen in Bochart, Hierozoicon, iii. 26. The familiar legend that the unicorn could be taken only by the aid of a virgin obtained currency through the Physiologus (see voL xix. p. 7). The English Bible, following the Septuagint (/iovoVfpus), renders the Hebrew reem (EN" 1 ) by "unicorn." But two horns are ascribed to the reem in Deut. xxxiii. 17, and the Hebrew word reappears in Arabic as the name of the larger ante lopes, probably the Antilope leucoryx, while in Assyrian the rimu appears to be the wild ox. There are recent fossil remains in the Lebanon both of Bos primigenius and Bison urus, though both have been long extinct in Palestine.  UNITARIANISM.The term Unitarianism in its widest sense includes certain lines of the great religious and theo logical movement or revolution of the Reformation in the 16th century, when this is regarded as the commencement of the process of the humanization of theology and ethics on the basis of the autonomy of the human mind. In another sense the term stands for a set of theological opinions, more or less variable, and yet in their general drift connected, some of them as old as Christianity, and one section of which only is indicated by the term when used as synonymous with Antitrinitarianism. But there is another meaning of the term, a still narrower one, and to Unitarianism in this sense this article must be confined. We must limit ourselves to a brief account of Unitarianism as it appears in ecclesiastical organizations in separation from the orthodox churches. This treatment of the subject is of course incomplete, and would be misleading were the incompleteness not expressly announced. For a marked feature of the late history of the Unitarian churches is the growing tendency they exhibit of working out to their logical results some of the wider principles of the Reformation to which they ultimately owe their origin, rather than the design of formulating and propagating systems of theology. To not a few modern Unitarian leaders the bond which connects them with a specifically Unitarian organization is the spirit and tendency of the larger movement for which it happens to provide freer play than the orthodox churches, while they repudiate the imputation of belonging to a dogmatic sect. Modern Unitarians have also, both in Europe and America, emphatically and successfully resisted the inclination of some of their number to lay down, though in the most general terms, a creed of Unitarianism. Indeed, in opposing this inclination, it might sometimes seem as if the only essential article of Unitarianism were the maintenance of free inquiry in religion, an impression, however, which a careful study of the history of Unitarian thought would remove. In the same way such a study would show that Unitarian churches are in agreement on many points of doctrine with early and recent theologians of all churches and sects.

This brief sketch of Unitarianism, as it has appeared in organized religious societies, takes us into but a few countries, and covers but a limited space of time. Poland, Transylvania, England, and America are the only countries in which Unitarian congregations have existed in any numbers or for any length of time. Elsewhere, either the law of the land has rendered their existence impossible, or they have been unnecessary in consequence of the substantial adoption by the existing churches of their principles and doctrines. The former was the case in Italy, Switzer land, Germany, and England in the 16th and 17th centuries, the latter to a certain extent in England in the 18th century, still more in Germany in the 18th and 19th centuries, and in Holland in the present century, as also to a large extent in France in the Reformed Church.

Poland (1565-1658).—The Unitarians, under the names of Arians, Samosatenians, Pinczowians, were formed into a separate church in 1565 by their exclusion as Antitrinitarians from the synods of the Trinitarian Protestants. Very early in the progress of the Reforma tion in Poland individuals had arrived at heterodox opinions on baptism and the Trinity, very much under the influence of the heterodox Italian refugees in Switzerland, some of whom visited Poland (Lelio Sozzini, 1551 and 1558; Paul Alciati, 1561; G. V. Gentile, 1561; Biandrata, 1555). Gonesius and Gregory Pauli were the first to openly preach Antitrinitarian doctrine. After their separation from the orthodox, the Polish Unitarians developed divergent views as to the nature of Christ, as to the lawfulness of paying divine worship to Him, as to the subjects of baptism (infants or adults), and as to the relation of Christians to the state. On the first point some were Arians and others Humanitarians, while those who claimed divine worship for Christ were called Adorantes and those of the opposite view Nonadorantes. An epoch in the history of the party was made by the arrival of Fausto Sozziui at Cracow in 1579 (see SOCINUS). He succeeded in converting the great majority of the churches to his views and in silencing the dissentients. Henceforth the Polish Unitarians adopted the Socinian practice of paying worship to Christ, the Socinian view of the necessity of baptism and of the Christian's duty towards the state. They rapidly became a numerous and powerful body in Poland, distin guished by the rank of their adherents, the ability and learning of their scholars, the excellence of their schools, and the superiority and wide circulation of their theological literature. Racow, the theological centre of the Socinians, with its school and printing presses, obtained a world-wide fame. It was there that the Raeovian Catechism was published (1605 in the Polish language, 1608 in German, and 1609 in Latin).: But before the death of Fausto Sozzini (1604) the situation of the Unitarians became more difficult, and in 1611 the Jesuits obtained their first open triumph over them. In the rapid course of the Catholic reaction, which was not resisted by the orthodox Protestants as long as the Sociniau heretics only suffered, the church and school at Lublin, the most important place next to Racow, were first put down (1627), and Racow, with its church, school, and printing-press suffered the same fate in 1638. The final blow to the whole body followed in 1658, when all adherents of "the Arian and Anabaptist sect" were commanded to quit the kingdom within two years. A few renounced their faith, but the large majority fled into Transylvania, Prussia, Silesia, Holland, and England.

Transylvania (1568-1887).—Next to Poland Transylvania was the most important seat of Unitarianism. It was there the name was first used by the sect as its own designation, and it is there only that the sect has had a continuous existence down to our own time. It is generally considered that the Italian refugee Biandrata was the founder of Transylvanian Unitarianism, but the present representatives of the body claim for it a nobler and domestic origin. Biandrata attended John Sigismund as a physician in 1563, and under his influence Unitarianism made rapid progress. In 1568 its professors, favoured by the king and many magnates, "after separating from the orthodox church, constituted themselves a distinct body under the distinguished man Francis David, who is now regarded as the apostle of true Transylvanian Unitarianism. Their principal centre was Klausenburg (Kolozsvar), where they had a large church, a college, and a printing-press. But the same conflict between a more radical and a more conservative tendency which appeared amongst the Unitarians of Poland greatly disturbed the churches of Transylvania, particularly with regard to the worship of Christ. On the side of the Adorantes was Biandrata, and on that of the Konadorantes David. The party of David succumbed to force and fraud, and he himself died in prison a martyr to his convictions. Gradually the Sociuian view prevailed, though in 1618 an old order to worship Christ required reinforcement. In the latter half of the 18th century the more logical view of David entirely disappeared. Under the Austrian dynasty the Unitarians