Editing Lelio Sozzini (section)

==Life==
Lelio Sozzini was born and raised in [[Siena]], capital city of the [[Republic of Siena]].<ref name="Treccani"/> His family descended from Sozzo, a banker at Percenna ([[Buonconvento]]), whose second son, Mino Sozzi, settled as a notary at Siena in 1304. Mino Sozzi's grandson, Sozzino (d. 1403), was the founder of a line of patrician jurists and canonists, Mariano Sozzini the Elder (1397–1467) being the first and the most famous, and traditionally regarded as the first [[freethinker]] in the Sozzini family.<ref name="Treccani"/>

Lelio (who spelled his surname ''Sozzini'', [[Latinisation of names|Latinized]] as ''Socinus'') was the sixth son of Mariano Sozzini the Younger (1482–1556) by his wife Camilla Salvetti, and was educated as a jurist under his father's eye at [[Bologna]]. He told [[Philipp Melanchthon]] that his desire to reach the ''fontes juris'' led him to [[Biblical studies|Biblical research]], and hence to rejection of "the [[idolatry]] of [[Papacy|Rome]]".

Lelio Sozzini gained some knowledge of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]] (he gave a manuscript of the [[Quran]] to [[Bibliander]]) as well as [[Greek language|Greek]], but was never a laborious student. His father supplied him with means and, on coming of age, he repaired to the [[Republic of Venice]], home to the headquarters of the Protestant churches in [[Italy in the Middle Ages|medieval Italy]]. A tradition—first published by [[Christopher Sandius]] in his book ''[[Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum]]'' (1684) and [[Andrzej Wiszowaty]] in his book ''Narratio Compendiosa'' (1668)—and amplified by subsequent writers makes him a leading spirit in theological conferences called the ''[[Collegia Vicentina]]'' at [[Vicenza]] between the years 1546 and 1547.<ref>Philip Knijff, Sibbe Jan Visser, Piet Visser, 2004, [https://books.google.com/books?id=0OMLjcrNPiIC ''Bibliographia Sociniana: a bibliographical reference tool for the Study of Dutch Socinianism and Antitrinitarianism''], [https://books.google.com/books?id=0OMLjcrNPiIC&dq=%22Lelio+Sozzini%22+%22collegia+Vicentina%22&pg=PA11 p.11]</ref><ref>Earl Morse Wilbur, 1952, [https://books.google.com/books?ei=sNxzUP2hOpDPsgawu4HYAw&hl=en&id=NH_ZAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=n ''A history of Unitarianism'', Volume 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=NH_ZAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Lelio+Sozini%22+Vicenza p. 81]</ref>

At this period, the standpoint of Sozzini was that of evangelical reform of the Christian faith; he exhibits a singular union of enthusiastic piety with subtle theological speculation. At [[Chiavenna]] in 1547 he came under the influence of [[Paolo Ricci]] "Camillo Renato" of [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]], a gentle [[Christian mysticism|Christian mystic]] whose teaching at many points resembled that of the early [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]]. Pursuing his religious travels throughout [[early modern Europe]], his family name and his personal charm ensured him a welcome in the [[Old Swiss Confederacy]], the kingdoms of [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Kingdom of England|England]], and the [[Dutch Republic|Republic of the Netherlands]].

===1548–1554===
Returning to Switzerland at the close of 1548, with commendatory letters to the Swiss Protestant churches from [[Nicolas Meyer]], envoy from [[Wittenberg]] to Italy, we find him at [[Geneva]], [[Basel]] (with [[Sebastian Münster]]), and [[Zürich]] (lodging with [[Konrad Pelikan]]) between the years 1549–1550. He was next at Wittenberg (July 1550–June 1551), first as Melanchthon's guest, then with professor [[Johann Forster]], for the improvement of his knowledge of Hebrew. From Wittenberg he returned to Zürich (end of 1551), after visiting [[Vienna]] in the [[Holy Roman Empire]], then [[Prague]] and [[Kraków]] in the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]].

Political events drew him back to Italy in June 1552; with two visits to Siena. In the Republic of Siena, [[freedom of speech]] was for the moment possible, owing to the siege of Siena (1552–1559) and shaking off of the [[Kingdom of Spain|Spanish yoke]]. This brought him into contact with his young nephew [[Fausto Paolo Sozzini|Fausto]]. Lelio was at [[Padua]] (not Geneva, as is often said) at the date of [[Michael Servetus]]'s execution (27 October 1553), burned at the stake with the accusation of [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]]. Thence he made his way to Basel (January 1554), Geneva (April), and Zürich (May), where he took up his abode.

[[John Calvin]], like Melanchthon, received Sozzini with open arms. Melanchthon (though a phrase in one of his letters has been strangely misconstrued) never regarded him with theological suspicion. To Calvin's keen glance Sozzini's over-speculative tendency and the genuineness of his religious nature were equally apparent. A passage often quoted (apart from the context) in one of Calvin's letters (1 January 1552) has been viewed as a rapture of amicable intercourse; but, while more than once uneasy apprehensions arose in Calvin's mind, there was no breach of correspondence or of kindliness. Of all the Protestant Reformers, [[Heinrich Bullinger]] was Sozzini's closest intimate, his warmest and wisest friend. Sozzini's theological difficulties turned on the [[Resurrection#Christianity|resurrection of the body]], [[predestination]], the ground of [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] (on these points he corresponded with Calvin), the doctrinal basis of the [[The gospel|original gospel]] (his queries to Bullinger), the nature of [[Repentance in Christianity|repentance]] (to [[Rudolph Gualther]]), and the [[sacraments]] (to [[Johann Wolff]]). It was the fate of the Spanish theologian [[Michael Servetus]] that directed his mind to focus on the doctrine of the [[Trinity]].

At Geneva (April 1554) he made, incautious remarks on the common doctrine, emphasized in a subsequent letter to Martinengo, the Italian pastor. Bullinger, at the instance of correspondents (including Calvin), questioned Sozzini as to his faith, and received from him an explicitly orthodox confession (reduced to writing on 15 July 1555), with a frank reservation of the right of further inquiry.

A month before this Sozzini had been sent with [[Martino Muralto]] to Basel, to secure [[Ochino]] as pastor of the Italian church at Zürich; and it is clear that in their subsequent intercourse the minds of Sozzini and Ochino (a thinker of the same type as Camillo, with finer dialectic skill) acted powerfully on each other in the radical discussion of theological problems.

===1555–1562===
In 1555, Lelio turned 30 years old. From 1556 following the death of his father, who left him nothing by will, Sozzini was involved in pecuniary anxieties. With influential introductions (one from Calvin) he visited in 1558 the courts of Vienna and Kraków to obtain support for an appeal to the reigning duke at [[Florence]] for the realization of his own and the family estates. Curiously enough Melanchthon's letter introducing Sozzini to [[Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian II]] invokes as an historic parallel the hospitable reception rendered by the [[Emperor Constantine]] to [[Athanasius]] when he fled from Egypt to [[Trier]].

Well received out of Italy, Sozzini could do nothing at home, and apparently did not proceed beyond Venice. The [[Inquisition]] had its eye on the family; his brother [[Cornelio Sozzini]] was imprisoned at Rome; his brothers [[Celso Sozzini]] and Camillo and his nephew Fausto were ''"reputati Luterani,"'' suspected of Lutheranism, and [[Camillo Sozzini]] had fled from Siena. In August 1559 Sozzini returned to Zürich, where his brief career was closed by his death on 4 May 1562, at his lodging in the house of Hans Wyss, a silk-weaver.