673 



SOCINUS FAUSTUS. 



SOCRATES. 



674 





inontli of October of the next year, Servetus was burnt at Geneva. 

 This was a significant comment on the words of advice. 



Faustus Socinus, the son of Alexander the younger, was born at 

 Siena in December 1539 : his mother Agnes was the daughter of 

 Burgesio Petrucci, a distinguished personage at Siena, and of Victoria 

 Piccolotnini, niece of Pope Pius the Second. The parents of Faustus 

 Socinus died young, and his education was somewhat neglected. He 

 himself complains that he studied the liberal arts slightly, and without 

 the direction of a teacher : he had learned nothing of philosophy or 

 school divinity, and of logic he had only certain rudiments, aud that 

 very late. At the age of twenty he took refuge in Franco, on account of 

 danger which threatened his family on a suspicion of heresy. On the 

 death "of his uncle Liulius he returned to Italy ; and being taken into 

 the service of the grand-duke of Tuscany, spent twelve years at the 

 court of Florence. About the close of this period he began seriously 

 to reflect on religious matters, and finally determined to abandon his 

 country and his favourable prospects, that he might occupy himself 

 about his own and other men's salvation. In the year 1574, at the age 

 of thirty-five, he retired to Basel to study theology. About 1578 he 

 was invited into Transylvania by George Blandrata, a person of great 

 influence in that country, to oppose the opinions of Franciscus Davidis 

 on the power of Christ and the honour due to him. The two theolo- 

 gians lodged together in the same house for four months, but Davidis 

 could not be prevailed upon to change his opinions ; and as he still 

 continued to proclaim them publicly, he was put in prison by the 

 prince of Transylvania, where he soon ended his life. Socinus was 

 blamed in this matter, but without any reason ; for whatever share 

 any of those who followed hia opinions had in the persecution of 

 Davidis, there is no evidence that Socinus joined them. 



In 1579 Sociuus visited Poland, and wished to be received into the 

 Unitarian churches of that country, which acknowledged none but the 

 Father of the Lord Jesus Christ to be the most High God ; but as he 

 dissented from the Unitarian churches in some matters, his application 

 was at first rejected. Socinus however wrote in defence of the Polish 

 Unitarian churches ; and he also published his treatise, entitled ' Pro 

 Racoviensibus Responsio,' in reply to the work of Jacobus Palseologus, 

 which was entitled ' Defeusio Verse Senteutise de Magistratu Politico.' 

 Sociuus maintains the doctrine of obedience to the sovereign power in 

 its most unlimited extent, and he instances as an example of the mis- 

 chievous teaching of those who inculcated the right of resistance to 

 princes, the bloody wars of the Hollanders with Philip II. of Spain. 

 It is singular that the Responsio was represented to Stephen Bathory, 

 king of Poland, as a work against government, a charge which could 

 not well be made against a treatise that was directed against all those 

 who maintained the right of subjects to examine and pass judgment 

 on the conduct of princes ; however, Socinus thought it prudent 

 to retire from Cracow, where he had lived four years, to the estate of 

 a nobleman named Christopher Morsztyn, where he was safe. During 

 this retreat he married Elizabeth, the daughter of his protector, by 

 whom he had a child called Agnes, who afterwards married a Polish 

 gentleman. By this marriage Socinus became connected with the 

 principal families of Poland, a circumstance which greatly contributed 

 to the influence which he subsequently obtained. His wife died in 

 1587, and his grief, which was excessive, was followed by a severe 

 illness. He subsequently returned to Cracow, and in the year 1588 he 

 assisted at the synod of Brest, which is a town on the borders of 

 Lithuania, and disputed on the death and sacrifice of Christ, on justi- 

 fication, the corrupted nature of man, aud with the followers of 

 Davidis and Budny, on the invocation of Christ. Socinus was now 

 beginning to gain over many persons of rank to his opinions, though 

 some who were in authority, and most of the old ministers, still 

 opposed him. It is said that Securinius was the first who maintained 

 the doctrines of Socinus; but Pctrus Stoinius, a young minister, 

 became one of the most eloquent expounders of his tenets. It was 

 during the second residence of Socinus at Cracow, and in 1598, after 

 the publication of his book on the Saviour, ' De Jesu Christo Servatore,' 

 that the populace, being stirred up, as it is said, by the scholars, 

 pulled him from his sick chamber, and dragged him half naked through 

 the streets, and he was rescued with difficulty by one of the professors. 

 His property was plundered, and his manuscripts were destroyed, one 

 of which was against atheists. After this outrage he left Cracow for a 

 neighbouring village, where he died in March 1604. 



Socinus was rather tall and slender : his forehead was lofty, aud his 

 eyes penetrating ; he was a handsome man, and of dignified appear- 

 ance. He was abstemious in all things; simple in his manners, 

 though grave ; and unable to all persons. He was naturally choleric, 

 but he had BO tamed his temper, that the mildness of his disposition 

 seemed to be a natural gift. His services to the cause of the Unitarians 

 in Poland, according to his Polish biographer, consisted in opening the 

 genuine meaning of Scripture in innumerable places, and in confirming 

 by solid arguments those opinions touching the person of God and 

 Christ which he found in Poland. His biographer adds, "As for the 

 errors received from the reformed churches, which did, in a great 

 number, as yet reign in that church, he did, with a marvellous felicity, 

 root them out. Such were that of justification, that of appeasing the 

 wrath of God, that of predestination, that of the servitude of the will, 

 that of original sin, that of the Lord's Supper and baptism, together 

 with other misconstrued doctrines." With respect to Christ, Socinus 



declares, in opposition to the Theses of Davidia, " that the man Jesus 

 of Nazareth, who is called Christ, not only Bpoke by the spirit of 

 prophecy, but more than prophecy, for he was the express image of 

 God, in whom the whole fullness of the godhead dwelt corporeally, so 

 that he never used a word in his teaching which ought uot to be con- 

 sidered as uttered by the mouth of God himself;" and, further, for tho 

 reasons which Socinus alleges, "Christ may now justly be called God, 

 inasmuch as, by the appointment of God, he discharges the highest of 

 all functions and is endued with divine power in heaven and earth ;'' 

 and, " that we ought, in addition to keeping his commands, to obey 

 and worship him as our Lord and God, appointed over us by the 

 Supreme God, and now reigning over ua with supreme power." 

 (Socini 'Opera,' ii., pp. 801, 802.) 



Antitrinitarian opinions had been promulgated in Poland in 1546, 

 at the meetings of a secret society at Cracow. The works of Servetus 

 were then read in Poland, and Lselius Socinus, in his visit to that 

 country in 1551, is said to have propagated his doctrines. But it was 

 Faustus Socinus who gave to the autitrinitarian opinions a definite 

 form, and reduced them to a system. He did not form a catechism, 

 though he designed one; but this was effected by Smalcius and 

 Hieronymus Moskorzewski, who collected and digested the doctrines 

 which were established or approved by Faustus Socinus. This cate- 

 chism was published at Rakow in 1605, in the Polish language. It 

 was translated into Latin in 1609, and an English translation appeared 

 at Amsterdam in 1652. In 1819, the Rev. Thomas Rees published a 

 new English translation, with an historical notice. 



The works of Socinus are in Latin, and fill the first two folio volumes 

 of the ' Bibliothect Fratrum Polonorum quos Unitarios vocant, Irene- 

 poli, 1656.' The first volume contains the cxegetical and didactic 

 works of Socinus, and the second his polemical writings. Socinus 

 wrote in a pure perspicuous style, and the moderation with which he 

 expresses himself contrasts favourably with the usual tone of polemical 

 writings of that day. 



(' The Life of that incomparable Man, Faustus Socinus Senensis, 

 described by a Polonian Knight,' Harleian Miscellany, vol. vi., p. 355 

 (this is a translation of the Life of Socinu?, prefixed to his works, by 

 Samuel Przypkowski) ; Bayle, Socin (Fauste) ; Krasinski, Historical 

 Sketch of the Reformation in Poland, London, 1840; Socini, Opera.) 



SO'CUATES, considered by some the founder of Greek philosophy, 

 was born at Athens on the 6th of Thargelion, Ol. 77. 4 (B.C. 468). 

 His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor ; his mother, Phsenarete, a 

 midwife. He was originally destined for his father's profession, and 

 we are told that he made no slight proficiency in his art ; statues of 

 the Graces, clothed in flowing drapery, were exhibited in the Acropolis 

 as his work. He did not however devote himself to this profession ; 

 he carried it so far as to earn a decent subsistence from it, but as ho 

 inherited some little property on his father's death, he was content 

 to devote the greater part of his time and talents to the study of 

 philosophy, for which he had a strong natural inclination. While 

 still engaged in statuary, and much more so after he had given it up, 

 he spent a great part of his time in reading all the accessible works of 

 former and contemporary philosophers. Crito supplied him with 

 money to pay the masters who taught him various accomplishments 

 at Athens, and he became an auditor of most of the great physical 

 philosophers and sophists who visited Athens during his time, espe- 

 cially of Anaxagoras, who was expelled from the city when Socrates 

 was thirty-seven years old, his successor Archelaus, and the luxurious 

 and accomplished Prodicus, of whom Xenophon makes him speak in 

 terms of the warmest affection ('Mem.,' ii., 1, sects. 21, 24). In a 

 word, he may be considered as having received the very best education 

 which an Athenian could command in those days. 



With regard to his public life, we know that he served his country 

 faithfully as a soldier, according to the duty of all Athenian citizens. 

 During the Peloponnesian war he made three several campaigns. In 

 the first of these he took a part in the long blockade of Potidaea, and 

 Alcibiades, in Plato's 'Symposium' (p. 219, E, &c.) gives a full 

 account, though perhaps rather a partial one, of his extraordinary 

 hardihood and valour during this long service. He endured with the 

 greatest indifference, hunger and thirst, heat and cold ; in one of the 

 skirmishes which took place, Alcibiades fell wounded in the midst of 

 the enemy ; Socrates rescued him, and carried him off, together with 

 his arms, for which exploit the generals awarded him the civic 

 crown as the prize of valour (TO apiffreia) ; this however he transferred 

 to Alcibiades. The scene of his second campaign was Bceotia, where 

 he fought for his country in the disastrous battle of Delium. Hero 

 he saved the life of another of his pupils, Xenophon, whom he carried 

 from the field on his shoulder, fighting his way as he went. On his 

 third campaign he served at Amphipolis. 



On the merit of his civil services it is more difficult to form a 

 decided opinion. As a member of the deliberative senate (/8ooA.rj), he 

 showed great firmness in voting against the iniquitous sentence by 

 which the victors of Arginusas were condemned to death. But there 

 is too much reason to believe that he really belonged to the party of 

 Theramenes, who was the chief mover in that and oth ar unhappy 

 proceedings. At any rate he did not leave Athens even when the 

 tyranny of the Thirty had reached its height; he was employed by 

 them as an agent in one of the most detestable murders which they 

 perpetrated that of Leon, and though he did not actually assist in 



