Editing Lelio Sozzini (section)

===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.