Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

SOCINUS

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 322 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
» Make a correction to this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

SOCINUS , the latinized See also:

form of the See also:Italian Sozini, Sozzini or Soccini, a name See also:born by two Italian theologians. I. LELIO See also:FRANCESCO MARIA SOZINI (1525-I 162) was born atSiena on the 29th of See also:January 1525. His See also:family descended from Sozzo, a banker at Percena, whose second son, Mino Sozzi, settled as a See also:notary at See also:Siena in 1304. Mino Sozzi's See also:grandson, Sozzino (d. 1403), was ancestor of a See also:line of patrician jurists and canonists, Mariano Sozzini See also:senior (1397–1467) being the first and the most famous, and traditionally regarded as the first freethinker in the family. Lelio (who spells his surname Sozini, latinizing it Sozinus) was the See also:sixth son of Mariano Sozzini junior (1482-1556) by his wife Camilla Salvetti, and was educated as a jurist under his See also:father's See also:eye at See also:Bologna. He told See also:Melanchthon that his. See also:desire to reach the fontes See also:juris led him to Biblical See also:research, and hence to rejection of " the See also:idolatry of See also:Rome" He gained some knowledge of See also:Hebrew and Arabic (to Bibliander he gave a See also:manuscript of the See also:Koran) as well as See also:Greek, but was never a laborious student. His father supplied him with means, and on coming of See also:age he repaired to See also:Venice; the headquarters of the evangelical See also:movement in See also:Italy. A tradition, first published by See also:Sand in 1678, amplified by subsequent writers, makes him a leading spirit in alleged theological conferences at See also:Vicenza, about 1546; the whole See also:account (abounding in anachronisms, including the See also:story of Sozini's See also:flight) must be rejected as fabulous. At this See also:period the standpoint of Sozini was that of evangelical reform; he exhibits a singular See also:union of enthusiastic piety with subtle theological See also:speculation. At See also:Chiavenna in 1547 he came under the See also:influence of Camillo of See also:Sicily, a See also:gentle mystic, surnamed Renato, whose teaching at many points resembled that of the See also:early See also:Quakers.

Pursuing his religious travels, his family name and his See also:

personal See also:charm ensured him a welcome in See also:Switzerland, See also:France, See also:England and See also:Holland. Returning to Switzerland at the See also:close of 1548, with commendatory letters to the Swiss churches from. See also:Nicolas See also:Meyer, See also:envoy from See also:Wittenberg to Italy, we find him (1549-1550) at See also:Geneva, See also:Basel (with See also:Sebastian See also:Munster) and See also:Zurich (lodging with Pellican). He is next at Wittenberg (See also:July 1550 to See also:June 1551), first as Melanchthon's See also:guest, then with Johann See also:Forster, for improvement of his Hebrew. From Wittenberg he returned to Zurich (end of 1551), after visiting See also:Prague, See also:Vienna and See also:Cracow. See also:Political events See also:drew him back to Italy in June 1552; two visits to Siena (where freedom of speech was for the moment possible, owing to the shaking off of the See also:Spanish yoke) brought him into fruitful contact with his See also:young See also:nephew Fausto. He was at See also:Padua (not Geneva, as is often said) at the date of See also:Servetus's See also:execution (Oct. 27, 15J3). Thence he made his way to Basel (January 1554), Geneva (See also:April) and Zurich (May), where he took up his See also:abode. See also:Calvin, like Melanchthon, received Sozini with open arms, Melanchthon (though a phrase in one of his letters has been strangely misconstrued) never regarded him with theological suspicion. To Calvin's keen glance Sozini's over-speculative tendency and the genuineness of his religious nature were equally apparent. A passage often quoted (apart from the. context) in one of Calvin's letters (January 1, 1552) has been, viewed as a rapture of amicable intercourse; but, while more than once uneasy apprehensions arose in Calvin's mind, there was no See also:breach of See also:correspondence or of kindliness.

Of all the Reformers, See also:

Bullinger was Sozini's closest intimate, his warmest and wisest friend. Sozini's theological difficulties turned on the resurrection of the See also:body, See also:predestination, the ground of salvation (on these points he corresponded with Calvin), the doctrinal basis of the See also:original See also:gospel (his queries to Bullinger), the nature of repentance (to See also:Rudolph Gualther), the sacraments (to Johann See also:Wolff). It was the See also:fate of Servetus that directed his mind to the problem of the Trinity. At Geneva (April 1554) he made. incautious remarks on the See also:common See also:doctrine, emphasized in a subsequent See also:letter to Martinengo, the Italian pastor. Bullinger, at the instance of correspondents (including Calvin), questioned Sozini as to his faith, and received from him an explicitly orthodox See also:confession (reduced to See also:writing on the 15th of July 1555) with a See also:frank See also:reservation of the right of further inquiry. A See also:month before this Sozini had been sent with Martino Muralto to Basel, to secure See also:Ochino as pastor of the Italian See also:church at Zurich; and it is clear that in their subsequent intercourse the minds of Sozini and Ochino (a thinker of the same type as Camillo, with finer See also:dialectic skill) acted powerfully on each other in the See also:radical discussion of theological problems. In 1556 by the See also:death of his father (who See also:left him nothing by will), Sozini was involved in pecuniary anxieties. With influential introductions (one from Calvin) he visited in 1558 the courts of Vienna and Cracow to obtain support for an See also:appeal to the reigning See also:duke at See also:Florence for the realization of his own and the family estates. Curiously enough Melanchthon's letter introducing Sozini to See also:Maximilian II. invokes as an historic parallel the hospitable reception rendered by the See also:emperor See also:Constans to See also:Athanasius, when he fled from See also:Egypt to Treves. Well received out of Italy, Sozini could do nothing at See also:home, and apparently did not proceed beyond Venice. The See also:Inquisition had its eye on the family; his See also:brother Cornelio was imprisoned at Rome; his See also:brothers Celso and Camillo and his nephew Fausto were " reputati Luterani," and Camillo had fled from Siena. In See also:August 1 559 Sozini returned to Zurich, where his brief career was closed by his death on the 14th of May 1562, at his lodging in the See also:house of Hans Wyss, See also:silk-See also:weaver.

No See also:

authentic portrait of him exists; alleged likenesses on medals, &c., are See also:spurious. The See also:news of his See also:uncle's death reached Fausto at See also:Lyons through See also:Antonio Maria Besozzo. Repairing to Zurich Fausto got his uncle's few papers, comprising very little connected writing but a See also:good many notes. Fausto has so often been treated as a plagiarist from Lelio that it may be well to See also:state that his indebtedness, somewhat over-estimated by himself, was twofold: (I) He derived from Lelio in conversation (1552-1553) the germ of his theory of salvation; (2) Lelio's See also:paraphrase (1561) of apxr} in See also:John i. r as " the beginning of the gospel " gave Fausto an exegetical hint for the construction of his Christology. Apart from these suggestions, Fausto owed nothing to Lelio, See also:save a curiously far-fetched See also:interpretation of John viii. 58 and the stimulus of his pure See also:character and shining qualities. The two meri were of contrasted types. Lelio, impulsive and inquisitive, was in quest of the spiritual ground of religious truths; the drier mind of Fausto sought in See also:external authority a basis for the ethical teaching of See also:Christianity. Sozini's extant writings are: (1) De sacramentis dissertatio (r56o), four parts, and (2) De resurrectione (a fragment) ; these were first printed in F. et L. Socini, See also:item E. Soneri tractatus (See also:Amsterdam, 1654). To these may be added his Confession (1555), printed in Hettinger, Hist. See also:eccles.

N.T. ix. 16, 5 (1667); and about twenty-four letters, not collected, but may be found dispersed, and more or less correctly given in Illgen, in Trechsel, in the Corpus reformatorum edition of Calvin's See also:

works, and in E. Burnat, L. Socin (1894); the See also:handwriting of the originals is exceedingly crabbed. Sand adds a Rhapsodia in Esaiam prophetam, of which nothing is known. See also:Beza suspected that Sozini had a See also:hand in the De haereticis, an Sint persequendi (1553); and to him has also been assigned the Contra libellum Calvini (1554); both are the See also:work of Castellio, and there is no ground for attributing any See also:part of them to Sozini. Beza also assigned to him (in 1567) an See also:anonymous Explicatio (1562) of the proem of St John's Gospel, which was the work of Fausto; this See also:error, adopted by Zanchi, has been a See also:chief source of the misconception which treats Lelio as a heresiarch. In See also:Franc Guinio's Defensiu cath. doe/. de S. Trin. (1590—1591) is an anonymous enumeratio of motives for professing the doctrine of the Trinity, by some ascribed to Lelio; by others, with somewhat more See also:probability, to Fausto. For the See also:life of L. Sozini the best See also:guide is Trechsel, See also:Die Prot. antitrin. vor F.

Socin, vol. ii. (1844) ; but there are valuable materials in Illgen, Vita L. Socini (1814), and especially Symbolae ad vitam et doctrinam L. See also:

Soc., &c. (1826). R. See also:Wallace, Anlitrin. biog. (185o), gives the See also:ordinary Unitarian view, relying on Bock, Da Porta and Lubieniecki. See also Theological See also:Review (July 1879), and Bonet-See also:Maury's Early See also:Sources of Eng. Unit. See also:Christ. trans. E.

P. See also:

Hall, 1884). Use has been made above of unprinted sources. II. FAUSTO See also:PAOLO SozzlNI (1539-1604) was born at Siena on the 5th of See also:December 1539, the only son of Alessandro Sozzini, " princeps subtilitatum," by Agnese, daughter of See also:Borghese See also:Petrucci, a descendant of Pandolfo Petrucci, the See also:Cromwell of Siena. Unlike his uncle Lelio, Fausto spells his' surname Sozzini, latinizing it Socinus. His father died in 1541, in his See also:thirty-second See also:year. Fausto had no See also:regular See also:education, being brought up at home with his See also:sister Fillide, and spent his youth in desultory See also:reading at Scopeto, the family See also:country-seat. To the able See also:women of his family he owed the strong moral impress See also:xxv. I Iwhich marked him through life; his early intellectual stimulus came from his uncle Celso, a nominal See also:Catholic, but an esprit fort, founder of the See also:short-lived Accademia del Sizienti (1554), of which young Fausto was a member. In 1556 his grandfather's will, leaving him one-See also:fourth of the family estates, made him See also:independent. Next year he entered the Accademia degli intronati, the centre of intellectual life in Siena, taking the See also:academic name " I1 Frastagliato," his badge Un See also:mare turbato da venti, his See also:motto Turbant sed extollunt.

About this See also:

time Panzirolo (De claris legg. interpp., first, published 1637) describes him as a young See also:man of See also:fine See also:talent, with promise of a legal career; but he despised the See also:law, preferring to write sonnets. In 1558-1559 the suspicion of Lutheranism See also:fell on him in common with his uncles Celso and Camillo. Coming of age (1561) he went to Lyons, probably engaging in See also:mercantile business; he revisited Italy after his uncle Lelio's death; we find him in 1562 on the See also:roll of the Italian church at Geneva; there is no trace of any relations with Calvin; to Lyons he returned next year. The evangelical position was not radical enough for him. In his Explicatio (1562) of the proem to St John's Gospel he already attributes to our See also:Lord an See also:official, not an essential, deity; a letter of 1563 rejects the natural See also:immortality of man (a position subsequently See also:developed in his disputation with Pucci). Towards the end of 1563 he returned to Italy, conforming to the Catholic Church, and for twelve years, as. his unpublished letters show, was in the service. of See also:Isabella de See also:Medici, daughter of the See also:grand-duke Cosimo of See also:Tuscany (not, as Przypkowski says, in the service of the grand-duke). This portion of his life he regarded as wasted; till 1567 he gave some See also:attention to legal duties, and at the instance of " a See also:great personage " wrote (1570) his See also:treatise De auctoritate s. scripturae. In 1571 he was in Rome, probably with his patroness. He left Italy at the end of 15.75, and after Isabella's death (strangled by her See also:husband in 1576) he declined the overtures of her brother Francesco, now grand-duke, who pressed him to return. Francesco was doubtless aware of the See also:motive which led Sozzini to quit Italy; there is every See also:reason to believe Przypkowski's statement that the grand-duke agreed to secure to him the income of his See also:property so See also:long as he published nothing in his own name. Sozzini now fixed himself at Basel, gave himself to close study of the See also:Bible, began translating the See also:Psalms into Italian See also:verse, and, in spite of increasing deafness, became a centre of theological debates. His discussion with Jacques Couet on the doctrine of salvation issued in a treatise De Jesu Christo servatore (finished July 12, 1578), the circulation of which in manuscript commended him to the See also:notice of Giorgio See also:Blandrata (q.v.), See also:court physician in See also:Poland and Transylvania, and ecclesiastical See also:wire puller in the interests of heterodoxy.

Transylvania had for a short time (1559-1571) enjoyed full religious See also:

liberty under an See also:anti-Trinitarian See also:prince, John See also:Sigismund. The existing ruler, See also:Christopher Bathori, favoured the See also:Jesuits; it was now Blandrata's See also:object to limit the" Judaic " tendencies of the eloquent anti-Trinitarian See also:bishop, See also:Francis See also:David (110-1579), with whom he had previously co-operated. A See also:charge of the gravest sort against Blandrata's morals had destroyed his influence with David. Hence he called in Sozzini to reason with David, who had renounced the See also:worship of Christ. In Sozzini's See also:scheme of doctrine, terms in themselves orthodox were employed in a heretical sense. Thus Christ was See also:God, though in nature purely human, namely as un Dio subalterno, al quale in un dato tempo it Dio supremo cede/le it governo del mondo (See also:Canal). In See also:matter of worship Sozzini distinguished between adorabio Christi, the See also:homage of the See also:heart, imperative on all Christians, and invocatio Christi, the See also:direct address of See also:prayer, which was simply permissive (Blandrata would have made it imperative) ; though in Sozzini's view, prayer, to whomsoever addressed, was received by Christ as mediator, for transmission to the father. In See also:November 1578 Sozzini reached See also:Kolozsvar (Klausenburg) from Poland, and did his best, during a visit of four months and a See also:half under David's roof, to argue him into this modified doctrine of invocation. The upshot was that David from the See also:pulpit exerted all his See also:powers in denouncing all cultus of Christ. His See also:civil trial followed, on a charge of innovation. Sozzini See also:compass it anticipates the See also:historical See also:argument of the " credibility " writers; in trying it by See also:modern tests, it should be remembered that Sozzini, regarding it (1581) as not adequately See also:meeting the See also:cardinal difficulties attending the See also:proof of the See also:Christian See also:religion, began to reconstruct its positions in his Lectiones sacrae (unfinished). His treatise on the Saviour renders a real service to See also:theology, placing orthodoxy and See also:heresy in new relations of fundamental antagonism, and narrowing the conflict to the See also:main personal benefit of religion.

Of the See also:

person of Christ in this treatise he says nothing; its one topic is the work of Christ, which in his view operates upon man alone; the theological sagacity of Sozzini may be measured by the persistency with which this See also:idea tends to recur. Though his name has been attached to a school of See also:opinion, he disclaimed the role of a heresiarch, and declined to give his unreserved See also:adhesion to any one See also:sect. His confidence in the conclusions of his own mind has earned him the repute of a dogmatist ; but it was his See also:constant aim to reduce and simplify the fundamentals of Christianity Not without some ground does the memorial tablet at Siena (inscription by Brigidi, 1879) characterize him as vindicator of human reason against the supernatural. Of his non-theological doctrines the most important is his assertion of the unlawfulness, not only of See also:war, but of the taking of human life in any circumstances. Hence the See also:comparative mildness of his proposals for dealing with religious and anti-religious offenders, though it cannot be said that he had grasped the See also:complete theory of See also:toleration. Hence, too, his contention that magisterial See also:office is unlawful for a Christian.

End of Article: SOCINUS

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
SOCIETY ISLANDS (French Archipel de la Societe) 		[next]
SOCIOLOGY

Site © 2006 - Net Industries