A fifth group of exiles established
themselves under the rule of the Great Elector Frederick William in the Mark
of Brandenburg, and formed churches at several places not far from
Frankfurt on the Oder, having for their last settled minister Samuel
Crellius, member of one of the most famous families of Socinian scholars and
preachers. Yet nothing could save them from succumbing to their
environment. In a generation or two their descendants were speaking only
German. Their numbers grew steadily fewer. In 1718 only some twenty-five
adult males remained, and in 1725 Crellius gave up his charge. After this
the members were annually visited for some time by a minister from the
churches in
Prussia, who preached and administered the sacraments to the survivors
; but by 1758 they had completely vanished. How seriously these exiled
Socinians took their religion is illustrated by the letter which two
brothers Widewski, officers in the Prussian army, wrote to Crellius in
1717, asking whether, being far from any church of their own faith, they
might partake of the Lord's Supper in the Reformed Church.
Crellius went from Brandenburg to England, where he formed the
acquaintance of numerous liberal divines in the English church, and thence
to Holland, where he died in 1747. He left two sons,Stephen and Joseph,
of whom it is related that when hey were studying at a gymnasium in
Berlin they were told that they might stay there no longer unless they
would join the Reformed Church, since otherwise the gymnasium would get
a bad reputation. They did not yield to the demand. They later
emigrated to America among the first settlers of the colony of Georgia, where
the former became a justice of the peace, and the latter a planter. They
are the only Polish Socinians known to have come to America. (
pp. 189-190 )
Firmin was one of the leading philanthropists of his age. He became
wealthy as a manufacturer and dealer in cloth, but Bidle's devotion to
them roused his interest in the poor and unfortunate. When the Socinian
exiles from Poland appealed to English sympathizers for relief in their
distress, it was Firmin that raised a fund for them by private
subscriptions from his friends, and by collections which his influence caused
to be taken up in the churches. He procured similar aid for the orthodox
Protestants of Poland when their turn came to suffer in 1681, for
Huguenot refugees from France in the same year, and for Protestant refugees
from Ireland under the oppressions of James II a few years later. He
did much for sufferers by the great plague in 1665, and by the great fire
in London the following year ; established a warehouse where coal and
grain were sold to the poor at cost, and set up factories where many
hundreds of them when out of work might earn their living by making
linen or woolen cloth ; and besides giving generously for poor
relief out of his own purse, he was given very large sums by others who
trusted him so fully that they never asked for an accounting. Moreover, he
was a pioneer in scientific charity, for, far ahead of his time, he
devised a scheme for systematic employment of the poor, and used to
investigate their needs by visiting in their homes. Finally, be took an active
part in the reform of prisons, in behalf of those imprisoned for debt,
in the work of hospitals, and in the reform of public manners. In all
these way he
was the model for many a public-spirited Unitarian in later
generations, who has like him been inspired to good works by the preaching and
example of his minister.
It was Firmin's especial services to the cause of Unitarianism,
however, that bring him into this history. Although he attended Bidle's
services as long as they lasted, he never withdrew from the Church of
England, and until his death in 1697 he maintained with Archbishop
Tillotson and with most of the prominent clergy an intimate friendship, which
was never broken despite his known difference from them in matters of
belief. As a convinced Unitarian, however, he sought every means to
spread Unitarian teachings. He is said to have had an important Polish
Socinian work translated and published in English not long after Bidle's
death, and to have assisted later on in bringing out a work by a liberal
Anglican clergyman leading to the view that the English Church should be
made so broad that a Socinian might join it.1
He also carried on the influence of Bidle in another way, and thus
kindled a fire which has never since gone out. In 1687 he got the Rev
. Stephen Nye, a clergyman holding Unitarian beliefs, to prepare A
Brief History of the Unitarians, called also Socinians. This led to
controversy, and other tracts followed. These made so many converts
that in 1691 Firmin, at his own expense, had these and others collected
into a volume of Unitarian tracts, with Bidle's's first three tracts
reprinted and standing at the head. Other tracts were collected later, many
or most of them written by clergymen in the Established Church, until at
length there were five volumes of them, the last two published after
Firmin's death. These writings stirred up the celebrated Trinitarian
Controversy in the church of England, of which we shall speak in the next
chapter, and they made sure that the truth to which Bidle had borne
such brave witness did not fall to the ground. Unitarian beliefs thus came
to be widely held in both pulpit and pew in the Church of England, and
that with little concealment ; so that for a time it was felt th
at the struggle for freedom of belief in the Church was won. No one
had done more to bring about this result than Thomas Firmin. ( pp.
309-311 )
A few Socinians also came [to England] in person. Adam Franck was
discovered by Archbishop Land in 1639 when, doubtless as a Socinian
missionary, he was trying to make converts among the students at Cambridge.
Wiszowaty came to England as a traveling missionary early in life, and
met several distinguished men. At least four members of the
Distinguished Socinian family Crellius visited England, of whom Paul studied at
Cambridge, while Samuel in repeated visits formed an intimate friendship
with the Earl of Shaftesbury, and with Archbishop Tillotson, who publicly
spoke in high appreciation of the Socinians, and was unfairly charged
with being one himself. Several Unitarians also came from Transylvania,
while Paul Best, who had traveled from England thither and to Poland,
had debated with the Unitarians in Transylvania and been converted to
their views, had studied Unitarian theology in Germany for some years,
and had finally returned to England full of missionary spirit, was
condemned to death by Parliament in 1645 for denying the Trinity,
though the sentence was never executed and he was released after being two
or three years in prison. ( p. 297 )
[ to "Bidle" ]
In 1651/2 a Latin edition of the Racovian Catechism was published in
London, and when it was brought to the attention of Parliament the next
month its teachings were declared to be "blasphemous, erroneous, and
scandalous," and all copies that could he found were seized and
burnt.1 Yet the following year an English translation
was brought out.2 At about the same time
Bidle reprinted his earlier tracts and published an English translation of
a life of Socinus and of two little Socinian tracts. These, however,
were soon quite overshadowed by a new work of his own, A Twofold
Catechism3 (1654), the second part being a
brief Catechism for children. Bidle was by now well acquainted with the
works of Socinus, but although he took many questions and answers from the
Racovian Catechism, he was not wholly satisfied with it. In this book,
therefore, he aimed to restore the pure teaching of Christianity
by giving answers entirely in the very words of Scripture, whose
divine authority he accepted. This little book covered not only the
doctrine
of the Trinity as his first tracts had done, but all the doctrines of
Christianity, and it made much bolder attacks upon the orthodox
doctrines than he had made before, and by sharp contrasts it showed how
clearly they contradicted the words of the Scripture. ( pp. 304-305 )
1. This is sometimes confused with the burning of the first Latin
edition in 1614. See page 296.
2. This translation is sometimes attributed to Bidle, but this is
doubtful. It purported to have been printed in Holland.
3. Two years after Bidle's death this work was translated into Latin
for circulation on the Continent by Nathaniel Stackey,a lad of fifteen
who had been a member of his congregation and was warmly attached to
him. The boy died at sixteen, and the next year his mother undertook
charge of the education of two of the children of Christopher Crellius, a
distinguished Polish Socinian in exile. This indicates close relations
between Bidle's followers and the Socinians on the continent. It was the
two sons of one of these children that emigrated to America.