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ACONCIO, GIACOMO (1492-1566?)

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Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 151 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ACONCIO, GIACOMO (1492-1566?) , See also:pioneer of religious See also:toleration, was See also:born at See also:Trent, it is said, on the 7th of See also:September 1492. He was one of the Italians like See also:Peter See also:Martyr and Bernardino See also:Ochino who repudiated papal See also:doctrine and ultimately found See also:refuge in See also:England. Like them, his revolt against Romanism took an extremer See also:form than Lutheranism, and after a temporary See also:residence in See also:Switzerland and at See also:Strassburg, he arrived in England soon after See also:Elizabeth's See also:accession. He had studied See also:law and See also:theology, but his profession was that of an engineer, and in this capacity he found employment with the See also:English See also:government. He was granted an See also:annuity of £6o on the 27th of See also:February 1560, and letters of See also:naturalization on the 8th of See also:October 1561 (Cal. See also:Slate Papers, Dom. See also:Ser., Addenda, 1547-1566, p. 495), and was for some See also:time occupied with draining Plunistead marshes, for whichobject various acts of See also:parliament were passed at this time (Lords' See also:Journals, vol. i., and See also:Commons' Journals, vol. i., passim). In 1564 he was sent to See also:report on the fortifications of See also:Berwick (Cal. St. Pap. For.

Ser. 1564-1565, passim; Acts P.C., 1558-1570, p. 146); his report is now in the See also:

Record See also:Office (C.S.P. For., 1564-1565, No. 512). But his real importance depends upon his contribution to the See also:history of religious toleration. Before reaching England he had published a See also:treatise on the methods of investigation, De Methodo, hoc est, de recte investigandarum tradendarumque Scientiarum ratione (See also:Basel, 1558, 8vo); and his See also:critical spirit placed him outside all the recognized religious See also:societies of his time. On his arrival in See also:London he had joined the Dutch Reformed See also:Church in See also:Austin Friars, but he was " infected with Anabaptistical and Arian opinions " and was excluded from the See also:sacrament by See also:Grindal, See also:bishop of London. The real nature of his heterodoxy is revealed in his Stratagemata Satanae, published in 1565 and translated into various See also:languages. The " stratagems of Satan " are the dogmatic See also:creeds which See also:rent the See also:Christian church. Aconcio sought to find the See also:common denominator of the various creeds; this was essential doctrine, the See also:rest was immaterial. To arrive at this common basis, he had to reduce See also:dogma to a See also:low level, and his result was generally repudiated.

Even See also:

Selden applied to Aconcio the remark ubi bene, nil melius; ubi male, nemo pejus. The See also:dedication of such a See also:work to See also:Queen Elizabeth illustrates the tolerance or religious laxity during the See also:early years of her reign. Aconcio found another See also:patron in the See also:earl of See also:Leicester, and died about 1566. AuTHORITIEs.—Gough's See also:Index to See also:Parker See also:Soc. Publ. ; See also:Strype's Grindal, pp. 62, 66; See also:Bayle's Dictionnaire; G. See also:Tiraboschi, Storia della lett. italiana (See also:Florence, 1805–1813) ; Osterreichisches Biogr. Lexikon; Nouvelle biogr. generale; Dict. Nat. Biogr. (A.

F.

End of Article: ACONCIO, GIACOMO (1492-1566?)

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