182 Jesus, Prophet of Islamattractive place for all those who wanted to freely discuss and act
on their religious beliefs, and who did not wish to blindly follow
the obtuse dogmatism of the established Church. Blandrata invited
Socianus to Poland, and his offer was gladly accepted. In the free
and congenial atmosphere that Socianus found there, he was at
liberty to write in his own name without fear of persecution by the
Trinitarian Church. Although his own person was safe, his prop
erty in Italy was confiscated. Socianus married a Polish woman
and severed all connections with his native land.
The rulers of Poland at this time did not believe in the doctrine
of Trinity, but they were still groping in the dark. They did not
know what steps to take to produce a positive dogma. The pres
ence of Socianus fulfilled this need and dearly gave satisfaction to
both the rulers and the people alike. The knowledge which his un
de had passed on to him, together with the fruits of his own study,
fused together in Socianus' intellect, and his writings had a pow
erful impact on the established Trinitarian Church.
In its anger, the Roman Catholic Church had him arrested and
he was condemned to be bumt alive. However, popular support
for Socianus was so great that the court decided to subject him to
ordeal by water, in order to give their judgement greater weight.
This test, along with that of ordeal by fire, had been adopted by
the TrinitarianChurch, and given the name of judicum dei, the judge
ment of God, although it had never been part of [esus's, or even
Paul's, teaching. The outcome of the ordeal was said to be the im
mediate judgement of God. In the ordeal by water the accused was
thrown into deep water. If he drowned, he was guilty. Knowing
full well that Socianus could not swim, the officiating dergy threw
him into the sea. He was saved from drowning, however, and lived
until he died in 1604.
In 1605, the writings of Socianus were collected together in a
book. Since it was published in Rokow, it became popularly known
as the Racovian Catechism. Originally published in the Polish lan
guage, it came to be translated into almost all the languages of
Europe. In time, his teaching spread everywhere, and his school of
theology became known as Socianism. Harnack, in his Outlines of
theHistory of Dogma, ranks Socianism along with Roman Catholi
cism and Protestantism as the last of the final stages of Christian
dogma. It is largely due to Socianus that the Unitarians became
recognised as a separate entity within modemChristianity. Harnack
conduded that Socianism had these characteristics:
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