Fausto Paolo Sozzini

"He shewed the world a more accurate way to discuss controversies in Religion . . ."

(John Bidle, 'To The Reader', Life of Socinus, London, 1653, p. [ii]
it being a translation by Bidle of Przipcovius, Fausti Socini Senensis Vita,
per H.J. McLachlan, Socinianism in 17th Century England, Oxford, 1951, p. 194).

" . . I have read of one Socinus, of . . . a noble family in Sene . . . whose parts, wisdom, gravity and just behaviour, made him the most famous with the Polonian and Transilvanian churches"

(William Penn, Innocency with her Open Face, London, 1669, pp. 10-11
per H.J. McLachlan, Socinianism in 17th Century England, Oxford, 1951, p. 305).

Note — 'but I was never baptized into his name . . . ; and if anything I acknowledge the verity of his Doctrine, it is for the Truth's sake, of which, in many things, he had a clearer prospect than most of his Contemporaries', continued W. Penn,
    W. Penn's earlier work, Sandy Foundation Shaken (London, 1668) had been accepted by some London Socinians more readily than Penn himself found fit ; years later he wrote, 'these Men, at least T.F. [Firmin] was ready to believe me nearer akin to them, than God knows, I was' (Collected Works, 1726, p. 453 ; per McLachlan, idem, p 306 ).
    There had been some lively controversy, usual — the substance of which I for one have not yet fathomed.
    In the text I used, H.J. McLachlan speaks about 'Penn's debt to the Italian reformer' (p. 305) and this may be of some interest —: can some threads be found in William Penn's later works in America ? (WPT).

From ON THE SOCINIANS, ARIANS OR ANTI-TRINITARIANS by Voltaire (1733)

... The great Mr Newton honoured this opinion by favouring it : this philosopher thought that the Unitarians reasoned more mathematically than we do. But the strongest upholder of the Arian doctrine is the illustrious Dr. [Samuel] Clarke. This is a man of unswerving virtue and a gentle disposition, more interested in his opinions than excited about making converts, solely concerned with calculations and demonstrations . . .

Voltaire, Letters on England, Letter 7 ; Penguin, 1980, p. 42.

From A HISTORY OF THE CORRUPTIONS OF CHRISTIANITY by Joseph Priestley (1782)

But no sooner were the minds of men at full liberty to speculate concerning the doctrines of Christianity, and circumstances excited them to it, but, while Luther and Calvin retained the commonly received opinion with respect to Christ, there were many others of that age who revived the primitive doctrine, though there were Arians among them. The great number, however, were of those who were afterwards called Socinians, from Faustus Socinus, who distinguished himself by his writings among those of them who settled in Poland, where they had many churches, and continued in a flourishing style till the year 1658, when they were, with great cruelty and injustice, banished from that country. This event, however, like others of a similar nature, contributed to the spreading of their doctrine in other countries.

In England this doctrine appears to have had many advocates about the time of the civil war, the most distinguished of whom were the truly learned and pious Mr. Biddle and his patron the most excellent Mr. Firmin ; and it does not appear that there were many, if any, Arians among them, the term Unitarian being then synonymous to what is now called Socinian. Afterwards, however, chiefly by the influence of Mr. Whiston and Dr. Clarke in the Established Church, and of Mr. Emlyn and Mr. Peirce among the Dissenters, the Arians became so much the more numerous body, that the old Unitarians were in a manner extinct. But of late years, Dr. Lardner and others having written in favour of the simple humanity of Christ, this doctrine has spread very much, and seems now to be the prevailing opinion among those who have distinguished themselves by their freedom of thinking in matters of religion. This has been more especially the case since the application made to parliament by some members of the church of England for relief in the business of subscription, and more particularly so since the erection of the Unitarian Chapel by Mr. Lindsay, (who, from a principle of conscience, on this ground only, voluntarily resigned his preferment in the church of England) and the publication of his Apology, with its Sequel, and other excellent works, in vindication of his conduct and opinion.

It is something extraordinary, that the Socinians in Poland thought it their duty, as Christians, and indeed essential to Christianity, to pray to Jesus Christ, notwithstanding they believed him to be a mere man, whose presence with them, and whose knowledge of this situation, they could not therefore be assured of ; and though they had no authority whatever in the Scriptures for so doing, nor indeed in the practice of the primitive church till near the time of the council of Nice. Socinus himself was of this opinion, and is thought to have given too much of his countenance to the imprisonment and other hardships which Francis Davides suffered for opposing it.* However, the famous Simon Budnæus [Budny] was also of those who denied that any kind of worship ought to be paid to Jesus Christ, contrary to the opinion of Socinus.

Many of those who went by the name of Anabaptists at the beginning of the Reformation, held the doctrine of the simple humanity of Christ ; insomuch that, before the time of Socinus, they generally went by that name. Among these one of the first was Lewis Hetzer, who appeared in 1524, and who "about three years afterwards was put to death at Constance."

Several of the Socinians of that age held the doctrine of the personality of the Holy Spirit, considering him as a being of a super-angelic order. Of this opinion was Mr. Biddle.

London : British and Foreign Unitarian Association 1871,
pp. 45-48.

    *   The reports of vary and some of them were certainly inaccurate.
    F. Socinus had been invited to Transylvania/Hungary, with a request to persuade F. David out of some of the latter's positions ; these he (David) had been giving much voice publicly and these had seemed dangerous to some parties in Hungary — for some strictly political reasons.
    The discussion between Socinus and David was carried in writing ; the two had in fact lived under one roof during the whole affair. Pray consider this : the role by Socinus in the controversy may have been not the idea by F. David of the same — nor of his (David's) role in the controversy.
    "Have you come here to do 'dicere' (talk) ; or have you come here to do 'docere' (teach)", complained F. David at some point. But Socinus was requested (perhaps simply hired) to do the 'docere' indeed — while F. David had an idea of doing the 'dicere'.
    (These data by my memory and please do not rely on the particular, the scholar — if any who can read — but find the exact wordings in some reliable sources if this happen to be your subject).
    In the end, Socinus had not persuaded F. David to change his views and went back to Poland. There seem to have been no grounds to claims that he had given "too much" (or any) countenance to what later happened to F. David for he was not present there — at the time the latter was subject to the fatal persecution.

WPT

From THE HISTORY OF FREEDOM by Lord Acton (1909)

"Socinus was the first who, on the ground that Church and State ought to be separated, required universal toleration."
(London : Macmillan 1909, p. 52.)

From THE SOZZINI FAMILY by Hendrik van Loon (1927)

It is dangerous to make predictions, but I have a suspicion that in the popular histories of three hundred years hence . . . the Sozzinis shall enjoy the luxury of a little chapter of their own and that the traditional heroes of the Reformation shall be relegated to the bottom of the page.

(H. van Loon, Tolerance, Garden City, New York, 1927, chapter xvii, p. 254).

From INSIGHTS AND OVERSIGHTS OF GREAT THINKERS by Charles Hartshorne (1983)

After all there are only, three, not infinite, doctrinal possibilities: no God, a simply and wholly immutable God, a God not wholly immutable. (A God wholly or in every respect mutable would scarcely deserve the name). Apart from the Socinians, and some hints by Cicero and Occam, theologians and philosophers for two thousand years reasoned as though the first two options alone were worth considering. Yet Plato's Timaeus can be interpreted to support Socinus." etc.
(p. 2).

To Faustus Socinus, the Italian born theologian who fled to Poland and there in 1556 formed the religious movement known as Socinianism, goes the rare honor of being the first thinker who explicitly, clearly, and with reasoned arguments accepted a contingent, changing aspect of God as a religious belief justified by its being an implication of human freedom and responsibility. He thus drew, from the Philonian (and, reasonably speaking, biblical) conceptions of God as supreme freedom and of the human creature as having a spark of this divine capacity, the consequence that if we decide something of our lives, then, since God knows us, we decide something of what God is. We furnish new content for the divine life. It follows that God is, insofar, a creature of which we are creators! The Whiteheadian proposition is close to the surface in Socinus. Before Socinus there were in this sense no Socinians—since Socinus, many Socinians (often not knowing about Socinus).
(pp. 91-92).

... I feel called upon to salute the Socinians, who saw some of the most essential points more than three centuries ago. And where, even now, is the encyclopedia or history which will tell us this. Such is the mixture of alertness and deep sleep that is human scholarship.
(pp. 251-252).

"So we have the unmoved mover not knowing the moving world (Aristotle); the unmoved mover (inconsistently) knowing the moving world (most theologians until recently); the unmoved mover knowing an ultimately unmoving (or at least noncontingent) world (Stoics, Spinoza); and the not wholly unmoved mover knowing a moving world (Socinus and many others, often unaware of their predecessor). Thus the chief modal possibilities for theorizing about God and the God have been held." etc
    "Theists of many kinds have tended to agree that God is to be supposed ideally powerful, but there is disagreement as to what the ideal form of power would be like. Before Socinus (and, alas, after him) ideal power of "omnipotence" was often taken to mean unilateral and complete divine determining of the creatures. But in that case creaturely freedom is a sham, since divine decision settles in this monopolistic sense. But there is also a linguistic objection. Our idea of decision, or of freedom, has to come from our own experience of deciding; and if we have no power of this kind how can we even form the idea of it in conceiving God as possessing a monopoly of the power?" etc.
(pp. 366-367).

Philosophical progress has perhaps a spiral character. One returns to similar points, but on a higher level. Even so conservative a writer as Karl Barth rejects classical theism, and declares for "a kind of holy change in God." May writers in America and a few in England take the Socinian side. Heidegger in a footnote contrasted classical theism with the idea of deity as "infinite temporality." A massive cultural change has been under way since the isolated Socinus took his brave and intelligent stand.
(p. 375).

 

Bibliographic

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title De Sacrae Scriptvrae auctoritate libellus Fausti Socini Senensis / Cui addita est Summa religionis Christianae, ejusdem Socini. Vtrumq́ue ex Italico in Latinum conversum. Publisher Racoviae : Typis Sebastiani Sternacii, 1611. Description 87 p. ; 16 cm. Note With: his, Lectiones sacrae, Racoviae, 1618. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604 Title Tractatus de iustificatione / Fausti Socini Senensis Publisher Racoviae [Rakow] : Typis Sebastiani Sternacii, 1611 Description 143 p. ; 16 cm Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Lectiones sacrae Fausti Socini Senensis, quibus auctoritas sacrarum literatum praesertim novi foederis asseritur... Publisher Racoviae, Typis Sebastiani Sternacii, 1618. Description 194, 4 p. 15 1/2cm. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Ad Iacobi Palaeologi librum, cui titulus est, Defensio verae sententiae de magistratu politico &c. Pro Racoviensibus responsio a Fausto Socino Senense conscripta: Antehac suppresso auctoris nomine edita ... Publisher Racoviae, Typis Sebastiani Sternacii, 1627. Description 591, [3]p. 16 1/2cm. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Fausti Socini Senensis Ad amicos epistolae : In quibus variae de rebus divinis quaestiones expediuntur, multaque sacrarum litterarum loca explanantur. Additae sunt paucae aliorum ad Socinum epistoles, ad quas ipse respondet. Publisher Racoviae : Typis Sebastiani Sternacli, 1618. Description 695 p. ; 17 cm. Note Contains also: his Ad Andream Dudithium epistolae, Racoviae, 1635. Language Latin

Author Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670. Uniform Title [ Vita Fausti Socini Senensis. English] Title The life of that incomparable man, Faustus Socinus Senensis : described by a Polonian Knight : Whereunto is added An excellent discourse, which the same author would have premised to the Works of Socinus : together with a catalogue of those works. Publisher London : Printed for Richard Moone, 1653. Description [8], 35, [3], 38-61, [7] p. ; 15 cm. (8vo) Translated by John Biddle. Language English

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Fausti, & Laelii Socini, item Ernesti Sonneri tractatus aliquot theologici, nunquam antehac in lucem editi. Quorum catalogum sequens pagina indicabit. Publisher Eleutheropoli, Typis Godfridi Philadelphi, 1654. Description 100 p. 12 cm. Note Fictitious imprint; printed in Holland. [..] Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Fausti Socini Senensis Opera omnia in duos tomos distincta.. Publisher Irenopoli (Amsterdam), 1656. Description 2 v. 33 cm. Series Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant,1-2. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title De Christi natura Fausti Socini disputatio. Publisher n.p., n.d.] Description 99[1]p. 16cm. Note Title-page wanting; running-title. Caption reads: Initium scripti Fausti Socini Senensis, in quo sententiam eorum, qui Iesum Christum Dei filium, unum illum & altissimum Deum esse...affirmant... Language Latin

Author Trechsel, Friedrich, 1805-1885. Title Die protestantischen Antitrinitarier vor Faustus Socin ; nach Quellen und Urkunden geschichtlich dargestellt / von F. Trechsel ... Mit einem Vorworte von dr. C. Ullmann .. Publisher Heidelberg : K. Winter, 1839-44. Description 2 v. ; 22 cm. Note Each vol. has also special t.-p. Contents Michael Servet und seine Vorg�nger.-- Lelio Sozini und die Antitrinitarier seiner Zeit. Language German

Author Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670. Title Vita Fausti Socini Senensis / descripta ab equite polono, anno MDCXXXVI ; with English annotations by E.S. Publisher Manchester [Lancashire] : J. Galt ; H. Rawson, 1912. Description 65, vii p. : geneal. table ; 19 cm. Note Cover title: Vita Socini. Added t.p. in English: The life of Faustus Socinus of Siena, the Unitarian reformer. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Listy [Correspondence.] / Faust Socyn ; opracował Ludwik Chmaj. Edition Wyd. 1-e. Publisher Warszawa : Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1959. Description 2 v. ; 23 cm. Series Biblioteka pisarzy reformacyjnych ; nr 2 Note Includes bibliographical references and index.

Author Chmaj, Ludwik, 1888-1959. Title Faust Socyn, 1539-1604.
Publisher [Warszawa] Ksiazka i Wiedza, 1963.
Description 511 p. Note Summaries and tables of contents also in Russian and English. Note Bibliographical references included in "Przypisy": p. [449]-500.

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Epitome colloquii Racoviae habiti anno 1601 / [Fausti Socini Senensis] ; ediderunt Lech Szczucki et Janusz Tazbir. Edition Wyd. 1-e. Publisher Varsoviae : Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1966. Description 116 p. ; 24 cm. Series Biblioteka pisarzy reformacyjnych ;nr. 5 Note Contains text of Sozzini's lectures and questions put to him by Valentinus Smalcius. Language Latin

Author Socinus, Faustus, 1539-1604. Title Aggiunte all'epistolario di Fausto Sozzini 1561-1568 / a cura di Valerio Marchetti e Giampaolo Zucchini. Publisher Warszawa : Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1982. Description 160 p. ; 24 cm. Series Biblioteka pisarzy reformacyjnych ;nr. 14 Note Includes index. ISBN 8301030232 Language Italian

Author Osier, Jean Pierre. Title Faust Socin, ou, Le christianisme sans sacrifice / Jean-Pierre Osier. Publisher Paris : Cerf, 1996. Description 250 p. ; 24 cm. Series Patrimoines. Christianisme,0763-8647 Series Patrimoines (Editions du Cerf).Christianisme. Note Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 220405318X Language French