Giovanni Giorgio Biandrata (or Blandrata) (1516-May 5, 1588), physician and counsel to the courts of Eastern Europe, brought the ideas of Michael Servetus and the Italian Radical reformers to the Reformations in Poland and Transylvania. He was an organizer of Reform and Unitarian churches in both countries and used his influence with the ruling families to protect the fledgling churches.
In 1969 the Universalist Historical Society (UHS) engaged Russell E. Miller, University Archivist and Dickson Professor of English and American History at Tufts University, a United Church of Christ layperson, to write a modern history of Universalism in America.
Jan (John) Kiszka (c.1552-1592) was a politician, magnate, patron and benefactor of Arianism in the 16th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Jan was the eldest son of Stanislaw Kiszka (d.1554), Palatine of Witebsk (wojewoda witebski) in today’s Eastern Belarus, and Princess Anna Radziwill (d.
The Czaplic family, nobles from Wolyn (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism) on their estates. After the fall of Raków, their estate, Kisielin, was briefly the capital of Polish Arianism.
The ancestor of the family, Kadjan Czaplic (an addition to the surname “Szpanowski”), though Eastern Orthodox, was a sympathizer with Arianism.
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851-September 19, 1931), an ichthyologist and an early teacher of evolutionary science, was president of Indiana University and Stanford University and a prominent peace activist. Brought up by Universalists, he associated with Unitarians and Universalists and their organizations, held liberal religious beliefs, and was treated as a philosophical spokesman by the American Unitarian Association, but did not join a Unitarian or Universalist church in adulthood and remained almost entirely aloof from organized religion.
Fannie Barrier Williams (February 12, 1855-March 4, 1944) was an African American teacher, social activist, clubwoman, lecturer, and journalist who worked for social justice, civil liberties, education, and employment opportunities, especially for black women. A talented speaker, writer, and musician, she was welcomed in cultured white society in the North, but remained loyal to people of color, knowing that the advantages she enjoyed were not given to other blacks.
Gabriel Hojski (ca.1555-1632) and his son Roman Hojski (ca.1585-1635), nobles from Wolyn (Volhynia) in today’s Ukraine and politicians in 16th and 17th century Poland, were patrons and supporters of Arianism (Socinianism or Unitarianism) in their estates. Gabriel Hojski was one of the most devoted and generous benefactors of Arianism in Poland in his time.
Field Marshal Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain (January 10, 1820-February 3, 1902), a significant figure in Britain’s wars on the Indian subcontinent, was the only person to have been appointed to the highest rank in the British Army while a member of a Unitarian church.
Frances was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to free parents whose names are unknown. After her mother died in 1828, Frances was raised by her aunt and uncle. Her uncle was the abolitionist William Watkins, father of William J.
The Humiliati, composed mostly of young Universalist ministers recently graduated from the School of Religion of Tufts College in Medford, Massachusetts, was organized in 1945 and met annually until 1954.
Charles Hartshorne (pronounced Harts-horne—as in “deer’s horn”) (June 5, 1897-October 9, 2000) was the 20th century’s leading exponent of process theism. In his long career of more than 70 years, he vigorously defended the thesis that God presides over an everlasting universe as its eminent creative power and is supremely open to creaturely influence.
Universalists in late 18th century New England were not in theological accord regarding the afterlife. Some, like Caleb Rich, believed that the soul would experience immediate salvation upon death. These held the consequences of sin to be limited to life on earth.