poisonous herefy, chiefly in the city of "Beliga, of a certain name, but an un"certain author, which, with a fresh head, "rifes from the old error of the Ebionites. "It is doubtful whether it can be called "old, or new. It is new in the affertors, "but old in the error, viz. that our Lord Jefus Chrift is a mere man."

According to Maxentius, who flourished in the year 520, the unitarians were by no means extinct in his neighbourhood. Speaking of the church as rejecting the doctrine of those who say that "Chrift is "God by favour, and not by nature," he fays, "against this all heretics, as well thofe "who are manifeftly cut off and divided, as those who are within the church, and fpiritually divided from it, whom the

Nuper quoque, id eft, in diebus noftris emerfifle hærefim venenofam, et maxime Beligarum urbe confpexi. mus, certi erroris, incerti nominis: quia cum recenti capite ex antiqua Ebionitarum ftirpe furrexerit, dubium admodum eft antiqua magis dici, an recens debeat. Nova enim affertoribus, fed vetufta erroribus fuit. Solitarium quippe hominem dominum noftrum Jefum Chriftum natum effe blafphemans. De Incarnatione, lib. 1. cap. 2. p. 962.

“holy

66

holy charity of the church bravely tole"rates, always take up arms, and cease not "to urge it with falfe charges, and en"deavour to excite all they can influence "against it. As yet," he adds, "we are "in the threshing floor, corn mixed with "chaff, good men grieve at the society of "the wicked." This paffage is very fimilar to that of Facundus, and makes it extremely probable, that, in all christian coun tries, there were great numbers of unitarians, fufficiently known to be fo, in communion with the catholic church, without being molested.

SECTION II.

Of the State of the Unitarians after the fixth Century.

WE must not expect to find any diftinct

account of the unitarians, or the con

dition they were in, in what are called the dark ages. There can be no doubt, however, but that they continued to be in the fame ftate in which they had been in the preceding period, i. e. not very conspicuous, or forming many feparate focieties, at least, fuch as the hiftorians of the time had any knowledge of; but mixed with other chriftians, though without making any secret of their opinions, Of this, though there are no diftinct accounts, there are fufficient traces. I have noted only a few, as they happened to fall under my obfervation, when I was reading for other purposes.

Pope Gregory the Great, who flourished about the close of the fixth century, fpeaks of heretics not envy

"Chrift being God, because they could "be fo if they would, confidering Chrift as “a mere man, and made a God by fa"vour*." *." These must have been unitarians, for it is a language that was never held by Arians.

In Bulgaria Sandius fays, that the Photinians remained till the time of Pope Nicholas, about the year 860. Hift. p. 117. Agobard Agobard fpeaks of Avitus having written against them, but at what time does not appear.

For fome time the unitarians were called Bonofians, from Bonofus, bishop of Serdica, in the latter end of the fourth, and the beginning of the fifth century. Mention is made of him as an unitarian, along

*Non invideo Chrifto deo facto, quoniam, fi volo, et ipfe poffum fieri. Qui Jefum Chriftum dominum noftrum, non per myfterium conceptionis, fed per profectum gratiæ deum putavit, perverfa allegatione aftruens eum purum hominum natum : fed ut deus effet, per meritum profeciffe, atque ab hoc æftimans et fe quoflibet alios poffe ei coequari, qui filii dei per gratiam fiunt. In Job. cap. 35. p. 110. C

+ Beatus quoque Avitus, Photinianorum hæreticorum validiffimus expugnator. Adv. Fælicem, fect. 41. p. 55. with

with Photinus, by Marius Mercator*, and alfo by Juftinian, who ranks him with Paulus Samofatenfis, Photius (probably Photinus) and Neftorius +. Mention is alfo made of the Bonofians in a council held at Orleans, A. D. 540 1.

Sandius fays, that the Bonofians were the fame with the Felicians, fo called from Felix, of Urgella in Spain, who, in conjunction with Elipandus, of Toledo, taught heretical doctrines with refpect to the trinity, A. D. 780 (Hift. p. 360) and that this Elipandus held the fame opinions with Sabellius, he fays, appears from a copy of his confeffion to Beatus and Heterius. He adds, that the four preceding bishops of Toledo, who compiled the Toledan Gothic

* Hunc itaque Hebionum philofophum fecutus Marcellus Galata eft, Photinus quoque, et ultimis temporibus Serdicenfis Bonofus, qui a Damafo urbis Romæ epifcopo prædamnatus eft. Opera, p. 165.

+ Επειδή Παύλον τον Σαμοσαλέα, και Φώκον, και Βονώσου, και Νεσοριον αναθεματίζετε. Εpift. p. 122.

Judex civitatis vel loci, fi hæreticum aut Bonofiacum, vel cujuflibet alterius hærefis facerdotem, quam cunque perfonam de catholicis rebaptizaffe cognoverit. Binii Concilia, vol. 2. pt. 2. p. 29,

liturgy,