on points hitherto closed by the Church's authority, including the
fundamental doctrine of the Trinity. But, while this new ferment led to
departures from the received opinions in many countries, especially in
Poland and the Netherlands, the Protestant leaders maintained that upon
the great articles of the creeds they were still one with Rome, and in
fact they soon displayed an eagerness to stifle heresy. Men often fail
to see the logic of their own position, and many who claimed the right
to differ from Rome on points which Rome considered vital were unable to
grant that others had an equal right to differ from Luther, Calvin, or
an English State Church. The outrageous cruelty of Calvin towards the
Anti-trinitarian _Servetus_, whom he caused to be burned at Geneva in
1553, affords a glaring instance of this inconsistency. But a sad proof
is given that, about that time, even Anti-trinitarians themselves were
not always tolerant.

Among the countries where the orthodox dogma was most freely questioned
was Transylvania, adjacent to Hungary proper.

Here the sovereign, John Sigismund, took sides with the
Anti-trinitarians, and issued in 1568 an edict permitting four
recognized types of doctrine and worship--Romanist, Lutheran, Calvinist,
and Unitarian. The Transylvanians were at this time largely under the
influence of their Polish brethren in the faith, who still practised the
invocation of Christ. _Francis David_, a powerful religious leader in
Hungary, having arrived at a 'Humanitarian' view of Christ two centuries
before it was held by English Unitarians, opposed Christ-worship. In
1579, when a Catholic had succeeded to the throne, David was denounced
for an intolerable heretic by the Polish party, and, being imprisoned,
died the same year. This blot on the record has long been deplored, and
David is held in honour as a martyr by the Transylvanian Unitarian