BIDDLE, GIOVANNI. - English Protestant, called "Father of the English Unitarians", b. at Wotton-Under-Edge (Gloucestershire), d. in London in 1662. After finishing his studies at Oxford, he returned to his native town and it is said that, even before reading Socinian books, through study and private interpretation of Holy Scripture alone, he became persuaded that in God there was only one Person. He then taught and published certain anti-Trinitarian writings. In the troubled era in which he lived, when Anglicans, Baptists and Presbyterian-Puritans were struggling among themselves, and all professed Trinitarian doctrines, his writings and sermons brought him persecution from every side. He was imprisoned in his town in 1645 and from that year onward until his death he had to struggle with everyone. He suffered repeated imprisonment and some of his writings (Twelve Arguments etc. [1647], Confession of faith and Testimonies [1648] and Twofold Catechism [1654]) were publicly burned by the executioner by order of Parliament; he himself was condemned to death, from which Cromwell saved him, exiling him, but with a good pension, to the Scilly Islands, where he remained three years until 1655. After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 he was again accused and imprisoned by the Anglicans in 1662 in London and would have remained there until his death had a friend of his not obtained his release shortly before he died.
His followers, called first Biddleians, then for some time Socinians, and also Arians, still exist in England under the name of Unitarians.
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Camillo Crivelli