uments against the substitutionary atonement as presented in the
popular Augustinian scheme and philosophically expounded in Anselm's
_Cur Deus Homo_. Socinus himself must be credited with whatever force
belongs to these criticisms on the usual doctrine of the death of
Christ, and it may be fairly said that most of the objections advanced
in modern works on that subject are practically identical with those of
three centuries ago.

Now there is good reason for believing that towards the end of the
seventeenth century this Socinian literature really attracted much
attention in England, and probably with considerable effect. But as a
matter of fact no English translation of any part of it was made before
John Bidle's propagandist activity in the middle of the century, and we
have the explicit testimony of Bidle himself and most of the earlier
Unitarians that they were not led into their heresy by foreign books. It
was the Bible alone that made them unorthodox.

A famous illustration of this is the case of _John Milton_ (1608-74). In
1823 a long-forgotten MS. of his was found in a State office at
Westminster, and two years later it was published under the editorship
of Dr. Sumner, afterwards Bishop of Winchester. The work is entitled _A
Treatise of Christian Doctrine_. It was a late study by the poet,
laboriously comparing texts and pondering them with a mind prepared to
receive the verdict of Scripture as final, whether in agreement with
orthodoxy or not.

The most ardent of Milton's admirers, and even the most eager Unitarian,
must find the book a trial; but the latter can at least claim the author
of _Paradise Lost_ as an Anti-trinitarian, and the former may solace
himself by noticing that here, as in all the rest, Milton's soul 'dwelt
apart.' He emphatically denies that it was the works of 'heretics, so
called,' that directed and influenced his mind on the subject. We may
notice here the interesting fact that another great mind of that age,
_Sir Isaac Newton_, has left evidence of his own defection from the
orthodox view; and his correspondent _John Locke_, whose views appear to
have been even more decided, is only less conspicuous on this point
because his general services to breadth and liberality of religious
fellowship are more brilliantly striking.

Locke's _Plea for Toleration_ is widely recognized as the deciding
influence, on the literary side, which secured the passage of the
Toleration Act in 1689. Deferri