UNITARIANS. Heretics who deny the Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the separate personality of the Holy Ghost. The name includes all Deists, whether the Arians of old, or the Socinians (which see) of later years.
The Arians were heretics named after Arius, whose doctrine was condemned at the Council of Nice, A.D. 325. He taught that there was a time when the Son of God was not, and that He was created by the Father. He called Him by the name of God, but denied that He was homoousios, "of one Substance" with the Father. The Arians seem to have held that the Holy Ghost also was a created Being. The Athanasian Creed, vv. 4-19 opposes the Arian heresy.
The Unitarians have in England 325 ministers, 355 chapels, and about 13 mission stations.
UNIVERSITY. (Lat., universitas, corporation.) A corporation of teachers and students instituted for the promotion of the higher education, and empowered to grant degrees in the various faculties of Divinity, Arts, Law. Medicine, &c.
England has five Universities, two ancient—Oxford and Cambridge; and three modern, viz., Durham, London, and the Victoria University, Manchester.
USE, see Sarum, Use of.
UTILITARIANISM. The name of the peculiar theory of Ethics, or of the ground of moral obligation, that adopts, as the criterion of right, the happiness of mankind; or, as Jeremy Bentham defined it, "the greatest happiness of the greatest number." It is opposed to the view that founds moral distinctions on the mere arbitrary will of God. The most eminent modern advocates of Utilitarianism are Hume, Bentham, Paley, James Mill, John Stuart Mill, Sir James Mackintosh, John Austin, Samuel Bailey, Herbert Spencer, and Bain.
VENIAL SIN, see Sin.
VENI CREATOR. An old Latin hymn ascribed by common tradition to St. Ambrose, but with no sufficient authority. It has been used with special reference to the gifts of Ordination since the 11th century. The first version in the Ordination Service was inserted in 1662, previous to that the second and longer form had been used.
VENITE, EXULTEMUS DOMINO. Ps. xcv. has been sung as the "Invitatory Psalm," opening the Service of Praise, from time immemorial. It is found in the Sarum Use. In the Eastern Church a condensed form of it is used.