SOCINI (SOZZINI), LELIO and FAUSTO. – Sienese heretics who gave their name to the radical Protestant current of the “Antitrinitarians” or “Unitarians,” which accordingly takes from them the name “Socinianism.”
I. LELIO
Born in Siena in 1525, died in Zurich in 1562. He studied law at Padua and was soon won over to the ideas of the renewal of the evangelism (v.), while nevertheless remaining firmly attached to the philological and philosophical premises of Stoicizing humanism; hence he was an energetic champion of man’s ethical capacities against Calvinism, as well as a renewer of the Arian position regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ. He left Italy for reasons both academic and religious, and travelled through Central Europe several times, but found no permanent home in the centres of Protestantism in Switzerland (Basilea, Ginevra, Zurigo) and Germany (Wittenberga), owing to his challenge to the new Calvinist, Lutheran, and Zwinglian dogmas, as well as to the Catholic one. His relations with the leading figures of the Reformation (Calvino, Bullinger, Butze, Melantone, and others) ultimately became polemical and at times harsh, especially with Calvino. He thus took part in all the theological controversies of the second generation of the “Reformation.” He was also in Cracovia, in Poland, under the protection of noble dissidents in both politics and religion. Lelio’s theological position is substantially analogous to that of many other Italian heretics of the period (Ochino, Bian-drata, Gribaldi, Aconcio, Stancaro, Pucci, Gentili), strongly influenced by the critical demands of Erasmian humanism: it is a position centred on criticism of every form of ecclesiastical discipline, especially of dogmas as irrelevant to the substance of faith-trust; hence on the practice of a more or less explicit dogmatic undifferentiation; on the theory of tolerance for heretics (hence the vigorous protest against the condemnation of Michele Serveto [v.], an antitrinitarian); on the simplification of Christian doctrine; and on criticism of the Trinitarian dogma.
II. FAUSTO
Born in Siena in 1539, died on 3 March 1604 at Luclavice (Cracow). Initially a man of letters, he gave European resonance to his uncle’s ideas (whose manuscripts he inherited) and firmly organized the antitrinitarians of Poland and Transylvania. As early as 1562 he had written a pamphlet against the doctrine of the Trinity, published anonymously; after staying in Lyon, he lived for some time in Florence, at the Medici court, studying the Bible and translating the Psalms, but also composing love sonnets and songs as a disguise. Only in 1574 did he definitively leave Italy for Switzerland and then for Poland, which was destined to become the centre of his intense activity as propagandist and organizer. His writings were disseminated, for the most part, under various pseudonyms. Antitrinitarian currents already existed in Poland, but they were divided and in conflict with one another: Fausto succeeded in outlining a middle position, to which they could all subscribe and which could at the same time provide the Churches with a firm structure, as they were opposed both by the new Protestant orthodoxy and by resurgent Catholicism. The centre of Fausto’s activity was the city of Rakow (near Sandomierz), where there already existed a symnasium bonarum artium, which soon became the sect’s centre of propaganda, just as Calvin’s Academy was in Geneva.Fausto’s theological conception is found substantially in the profession of faith known as the « catechism of Rakow », drawn up (1605-1609) on the basis of his opinions and writings after his death. In it, the authority of the Bible as the norm of faith is recognized, but above it is placed « sound human intellect », which requires no special divine assistance in order to recognize religious truths. In interpreting the Bible, one must adhere to the literal sense, bearing in mind that the biblical idea of God is anthropomorphic. Only the Father of Jesus is held to be God; for the Socinians, the unity of the person is inseparable from the unity of the nature; accordingly, they seek to prove that Christ’s divinity is contrary to Holy Scripture and reason. Nevertheless, for them Jesus is superior to other men by virtue of three prerogatives: his virginal birth, his perfect holiness, and the power to govern the world transmitted to him by God. Because of these prerogatives, worship is also due to Christ, though of an order inferior to that reserved for God. Moreover, the infallibility of divine foreknowledge and the doctrine of man’s original holiness and justice are challenged; it is called into question that man was immortal in the beginning and that original sin is hereditary. Man’s likeness to God consists exclusively in his dominion over the creatures subordinate to him. The necessity of Grace for eternal life is also denied (since man’s ethical powers are sufficient for observing the commandments), and along with it predestination, the necessity of Christ’s Redemption, and the application of his merits.
The Sacraments are regarded as mere ceremonies. Baptism itself is not necessary for those born into Christianity, and Christ’s command « baptize all peoples » applied only to the Church’s initial period. The Lord’s Supper, on the other hand, was instituted permanently, but with the simple meaning of a commemorative ceremony of Jesus’ death. The resurrection of the flesh and the eternity of the pains of hell are denied: the evil angels and the accursed will be annihilated on the last day.
The antitrinitarianism of the S. acted as a rationalistic leaven even after their followers, expelled from Poland (1638), found refuge in Transylvania, Holland, England, and America; Socinianism, increasingly freeing itself from the theological presuppositions initially retained, became an ideological movement of a pacifist, rationalist, republican character, indifferent to dogmas and markedly ethical-religious, which was of great importance in the formation of English liberalism.