Of the Excommunication of Theodotus by Victor.

THE argument that is urged with the most plausibility against the antiquity of the unitarian doctrine, is that which is drawn from the excommunication of Theodotus, by Victor, bishop of Rome, about the year 200; as it may be faid, that this bishop, violent as he was, would not have proceeded to the public excommunication of a man whofe opinions were not generally obnoxious.

I wish that we had a few more particulars concerning this excommunication of Theodotus, as it is the first of the kind that is inentioned in hiftory. It is to be obferved, that it is not Caius, the writer. quoted by Eufebius, who says that he was excommunicated on account of his being an unitarian, but Eufebius himself *; fo that,

Ησαν δε ετοι άμφω Θεοδός τε σκεύλεως μαθητας, το πρωίε επι ταύλη τη φρονήσει, μαλλον δε αφροσύνη, αφορισθέντος της κοινωνίας υπο βικίορος ως εφην, το τοτε επισκοπε. Hift. lib. 5. cap. 21. p. 253. confidering

confidering the writer's prejudices, there may be some room to doubt, whether he was excommunicated on that account.

The unitarians, it has been seen, faid that Victor favoured their doctrine, and this we find afferted in the Appendix to Tertullian's Treatife, De Prafcriptione, which, whether written by Tertullian himself, or not, is probably as good an authority as that of Eufebius. He fays that, after the two Theodotus's, "Praxeas introduced his

herefy into Rome, which Victorinus en"deavoured to ftrengthen. He said that Jefus Chrift was God the Father omni

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potent, that he was crucified, fuffered, " and died, &c.*” Victorinus, in this paffage, Beaufobre fays †, it is agreed, should be Victor, and it cannot be supposed, that he would have patronized in Praxeas the fame doctrine for which he had before excommunicated Theodotus. The probabi

* Sed poft hos omnes etiam Praxeas quidam hærefim introduxit, quam Victorinus corroborare curavit. Hic deum patrem omnipotentem Jefum Chriftum effe dicit; hunc crucifixum paffumque contendit et mortuum. Ad Finem, p. 223.

+ Histoire de Manicheisme, vol. 1. p. 533.

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lity,

lity, therefore, is, that Theodotus was excommunicated on fome other account than that of his being an unitarian.

Theodotus having been excommunicated as an unitarian, is not confiftent with that general prevalence of the unitarian doctrine in the time of Tertullian (which was also that of Victor) which we have seen that Tertullian exprefsly afferts. However, the account of Eufebius, though improbable, may be admitted without denying that of Tertullian, when the circumstances attending them are duly confidered.

Tertullian lived in Africa, where there feems to have been a greater inclination for the unitarian doctrine than there was at Rome; as we may collect from the remarkable popularity of Sabellius in that country, and other circumftances. Athanafius also, who complains of many perfons of low understanding favouring the fame principle, was of the fame country, refiding chiefly in Egypt; though he had feen a great part of the chriftian world, and was, no doubt, well acquainted with the ftate of it.

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We should likewife confider the peculiarly violent character of Victor, who was capable of doing what few other persons would have attempted; being the fame perfon who excommunicated all the eastern churches, because they did not observe Eafter at the fame time that the western churches did, for which he was much cenfured by many bishops, even in the weft.

Such an excommunication as this of Theodotus was by no means the fame thing with cutting a perfon off from communion with any particular church, with which he had been used to communicate. Theodotus was a stranger at Rome, and it is very poffible that the body of the chriftian church in that city did not intereft themfelves in the affair; the bishop and his clergy only approving of it. For I readily grant that, though there were fome learned unitarians in all the early ages of chriftianity, the majority of the clergy were not fo.

Theodotus, befides being a stranger at Rome, was a man of fcience, and is faid by the unitarians to have been well received by Victor at firft; fo that it is very poffible

poffible that the latter might have been inftigated to what he did by fome quarrel' between them, of which we have no ac

count.

Upon the whole, therefore, though Victor excommunicated this Theodotus, who was a stranger, and had, perhaps, made himself confpicuous, fo as to have given fome cause of umbrage or jealousy to him, it is very poffible that a great proportion of the lower kind of people, who made no noife or disturbance, might continue in communion with that church, though they were known to be unitarians.

There is no inftance, I believe, of any perfon having been excommunicated for being an unitarian before Theodotus.Whereas, had the univerfal church been trinitarian from the beginning, would not the first unitarians, the firft broachers of a doctrine fo exceedingly offenfive to them, as in all ages it has ever been, have experienced their utmost indignation, and have been expelled from all chriftian focieties with horror.