SOCINUS 



SOCIOLOGY 



547 



by no means identical, are to a large extent those 

 of the modern Unitarians. LsLIUS SOCINUS, or 

 LELIO SOZZINI, was born in 1525 at Sienna in Tus- 

 cany, of a family long distinguished for its cultiva- 

 tion of literature and science. His father, Marianus 

 Socinus, was an able lawyer, and designed his son 

 for the same profession. But Lielius soon displayed 

 a strong preference for theological inquiry, and in 

 order to better prosecute his biblical studies he 

 made himself familiar with Greek, Hebrew, and 

 Arabic. The only result of his legal training that 

 one can discern is an obstinate aversion to believe 

 anything ' unreasonable. ' The principles of the 

 Reformation had slowly found their way into Italy, 

 and in 1546 a secret society of forty distinguished 

 men was formed at Vicenza for the discussion of 

 religious questions. The conclusions at which they 

 arrived were unfavourable to the dogma of the 

 Trinity, which they held to have been borrowed by 

 the early church from the speculations of Greek 

 philosophers. The purpose -of their meetings 

 together having been discovered, the society broke 

 up. Some of the members were arrested and put 

 to death, others sought safety in flight. Among 

 the latter was Socinus, who travelled in France, 

 England, Holland, Germany, and Poland, making 

 the acquaintance, and acquiring the esteem, of 

 many transalpine scholars, and finally settled in 

 Zurich, where he died in 1562, when only thirty- 

 seven years of age. Lielius Socinus, unlike most 

 heretics, was a modest and reticent man. He 

 united in altogether unexampled degree the 

 warmest piety with complete freedom in theologi- 

 cal speculation. See Illgen's Vita Lrelii Socini 

 (Leip. 1814), and Sytnbolte ad Vitmn et Doctrinam 

 Lrelti Socini ( Leip. 1826 ). 



FAUSTUS SOCINUS, or FAUSTO SOZZINI, nephew 

 of the preceding, was born at Sienna, 5th December 

 1539. He lost his parents while still young, hence 

 his education was neglected ; but this rather helped 

 than hindered him to become a heretic before he 

 was out of his teens. At twenty-two he repaired 

 to Lyons, where he was when he got news of his 

 uncle's death. He immediately proceeded to 

 Zurich to take charge of his papers, next entered 

 the service of the Grand -duke o! Tuscany's sister, 

 and during twelve years seemed to forget, amid the 

 cares of office and the dissipations of society, the 

 thorny questions of theology. In 1575 he retired 

 to Basel, to prosecute his studies more closely, and 

 in November 1578 he set out for Klausenburg, at 

 the request of George Blandrata, whence next year 

 he went to Poland. Anti-Trinitarianism was even 

 stronger here than in Transylvania, and Socinus 

 soon obtained great influence. He preached and 

 disputed and wrote with a zeal that his successors 

 never displayed. His position in relation to the 

 Reformers was that Luther and Calvin had 

 rendered great services to the cause of religion, 

 but that they had not gone far enough, that the 

 only solid basis on which Protestantism could rest 

 was human reason, that everything that contra- 

 dicted it should be rejected as false and incredible, 

 and that dogmas that were absurd should not be 

 allowed to shelter themselves from criticism because 

 their defenders chose to call them mysteries. The 

 Protestants were alarmed, and the ablest among 

 them undertook publicly to confute Socinus. A 

 disputation was held in the college of Posna, which 

 ended in Socinus reducing all his opponents to 

 silence ; but they retaliated after the unscrupulous 

 fashion of the times by trumping up against their 

 vanquisher a charge of sedition, which, although 

 ridiculously groundless, made it necessary for 

 Socinus to withdraw from Cracow. While living 

 in retirement on the estate of a Polish noble, 

 Christopher Morsztyn, he married the daughter 

 of his protector. She seems to have been a tender 



and affectionate wife ; and when Socinus lost 

 her in 1587 he almost broke his heart through 

 grief. About this period his property in Italy 

 was confiscated ; but he had powerful and wealthy 

 friends in Poland, who proved generous to him 

 in his needs. In 1588 he took part in the synod 

 of Brest (on the borders of Lithuania), and com- 

 bated all the principal dogmas of the church 

 the divinity of Christ, propitiatory sacrifice, 

 original sin, human depravity, the doctrine of neces- 

 sity, and justification by faith. In 1598, on the 

 publication of his De Jesu Christo Servatore, his 

 enemies stirred up the populace of Cracow against 

 him ; and Socinus was torn from a sick-bed and 

 nearly murdered. Soon after he left the city and 

 founa a refuge with one of his friends in the village 

 of Luclawice, where he died, 3d March 1604. 

 The works are no longer read ; but his opinions 

 have never wanted advocates in any Protestant 

 country. He and his uncle may be regarded as 

 precursors of that spirit of Rationalism which has 

 rooted itself so deeply in the thought of the modern 

 world. 



See Przypkowski's Life, prefixed to a collection of the 

 works of Socinus in the Sib. Frat. Polonorum (Amst. 

 1636 ; Eng. trans. 1653 ) ; Bayle's article in the Diction- 

 naire ; Toalmin'a Memoirs ( Lond. 1777 ); a Life by 

 Wallace (1850). See also Fock, Der Socinianiamut 

 (1847), and the article UNITARIANS. 



Sociology, a hybrid word brought into cur- 

 rency by Cointe with the meaning of 'social politics,' 

 deals with man as a social being ( Aristotle's zoon 

 politikon), and so has for its subject the origin, 

 organisation, and development of human society 

 and human culture, especially on the side of social 

 and political institutions. The field of Anthro- 

 pology (q.y.) is usually restricted to the discussion 

 of the earlier stages of social development and sur- 

 vivals from that stage into the present. Specula- 

 tion on the subjects included in the wide field of 

 sociology is as old as literature ; and the names of 

 Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Vico, Herder occur as 

 prominent amongst those who have dealt with its 

 problems. But it was Comte who may be said to 

 have made the first serious attempt to make 

 sociology a science, and a sketch of his views will 

 be found at POSITIVISM. The methods of modern 

 sociology are, however, especially identified with 

 the work of Herbert Spencer, who makes the science 

 a series of generalisations on the correspondences 

 and contrasts between individual organisms and 

 communities or societies as social organisms, with 

 their structures and functions, their periods of 

 growth and decay. The forms of government 

 civil, ecclesiastical, military, industrial, ceremonial 

 are the structures of communities ; sentiments, 

 ideas, industrial processes, fine arts may be regarded 

 as functions. See the article SPENCER, and his 

 Principles of Sociology; ANTHROPOLOGY, CRIMINOL- 

 OGY, EVOLUTION, FAMILY, FEUDALISM, GOVERN- 

 MENT, MARRIAGE, POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLITICS, 

 POOR-LAWS, PRISONS, SOCIALISM, WOMEN'S 

 RIGHTS, and the works cited under these heads. 



The name of SOCIAL SCIENCE has in Britain 

 been specially given to the study of all that relates 

 to the social improvement of the community. A 

 society, called ' The National Association for the 

 Promotion of Social Science,' was organised at 

 a meeting held under Lord Brougham s auspices 

 in July 1857, to consider the best means of unit- 

 ing together all those interested in social improve- 

 ment ; and till 1884 held annual congresses in 

 large towns throughout the United Kingdom. At 

 the last congress the Association comprised fiva 

 sections (1) Jurisprudence and Amendment of 

 the Law (sub-section, Repression of Crime); (2) 

 Education; (3) Health; (4) Economy and Trade; 

 (5) Art 



