in church history, a sect of Christian heretics, so called from their founder Faustus Socinus. They maintain, "that Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person, but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own, that the name of God is given in the Holy Scriptures to Jesus Christ; but contend, that it is only a deputed title, which however in- vests him with an absolute authority over all created beings, and renders him an object of worship to men and angels. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness; and say that Christ only preached "the truth to mankind, set before them in himself" an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin and absolute predestination they esteem scholastic chimeras. They likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which they say becomes insensible at death, and is raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration in proportion to their demerits."

This sect has long been indignant at being styled Socinians. They disclaim every human leader; and professing to be guided solely by the word of God and the deductions of reason, they call themselves Unitarians, and affect to consider all other Christians, even their friends the Arians, as Polytheists. Modern Unitarianism, as taught by Dr. Priestley, is, however, a very different thing from Socinianism, as we find it in the Racovian Catechism and other standard works of the sect.