Editing Lelio Sozzini

{{Short description|Italian theologian and co-founder of Socinianism (1525–1562)}}
[[File:Lelio Sozzini.jpg|thumb|right|230px|Lelio Sozzini]]

'''Lelio Francesco Maria Sozzini''' ({{IPA|it|ˈlɛːljo franˈtʃesko maˈriːa sotˈtsiːni|lang}}; 29 January 1525 – 4 May 1562), often known in English by his [[Latinized name]] '''Laelius Socinus''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|iː|l|i|ə|s|_|s|əʊ|ˈ|s|aɪ|n|ə|s}} {{respell|LEE|lee|əs|_|soh|SY|nəs}}), was an [[Italians|Italian]] [[Renaissance humanist]] and [[Christian theology|theologian]],<ref name="Treccani">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Biagioni |first=Mario |year=2018 |title=SOZZINI (Socini), Lelio |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lelio-sozzini_(Dizionario-Biografico) |encyclopedia=[[Enciclopedia Treccani]] |location=[[Rome]] |publisher=Treccani |series=Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani |volume=93 |language=it |access-date=18 January 2023}}</ref> and, alongside his nephew [[Fausto Sozzini]], founder of the [[Nontrinitarianism|Nontrinitarian Christian]] [[belief system]] known as [[Socinianism]].<ref name="Treccani"/><ref name="Mortimer 2010">{{cite book |last=Mortimer |first=Sarah |year=2010 |title=Reason and Religion in the English Revolution: The Challenge of Socinianism |chapter=The Socinian Challenge to Protestant Christianity |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYeP_htzw14C&pg=PA13 |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |series=Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History |pages=13–38 |isbn=978-0-521-51704-1 |lccn=2010000384}}</ref> His doctrine was developed among the [[Polish Brethren]] in the [[Polish Reformed Church]] between the 16th and 17th centuries,<ref name="Treccani"/><ref name="Williams 1995">{{cite book |last=Williams |first=George Huntston |author-link=George Huntston Williams |year=1995 |chapter=Chapter 28: The Rise of Unitarianism in the Magyar Reformed Synod in Transylvania |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ppmYEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA1099 |title=The Radical Reformation |location=[[University Park, Pennsylvania]] |publisher=[[Penn State University Press]] |edition=3rd |pages=1099–1133 |isbn=978-0-943549-83-5}}</ref><ref>M. Hillar: "Poland's Contribution to the Reformation: Socinians/Polish Brethren and Their Ideas on the Religious Freedom," The Polish Review, Vol. XXXVIII, No.4, pp. 447–468, 1993.
M. Hillar, "From the Polish Socinians to the American Constitution," in A Journal from the Radical Reformation. A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 22–57, 1994. M. Hillar, "The Philosophical Legacy of the XVIth and XVIIth Century Socinians: Their Rationality." in the book "The Philosophy of Humanism and the Issues of Today," eds. M. Hillar and F. Prahl, pp. 117–126, American Humanist Association, Houston, 1995. Marian Hillar, “The Philosophical Legacy of the 16th and 17th Century Socinians: Their
Rationality.”  In The Proceedings of the Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy,  Alan M. Olson, Executive Editor,  Vol 4. Philosophies of religion, Art, and Creativity, Kevin Stoehr (ed.), (Charlottesville, Virginia: Philosophy Documentation Center,  1999) Marian Hillar, “The XVIth and XVIIth Century Socinians: Precursors of Freedom of
Conscience, of Separation of Church and State, and of the Enlightenment.”  In Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, Vol. 9, pp. 35–60, 2001, eds. Robert D. Finch, Marian Hillar, American Humanist Association, Houston, TX  2001.
Marian Hillar, “Laelius and Faustus Socinus Founders of Socinianism: Their Lives and Theology.” Part 1. Journal from the Radical Reformation. Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 10, No. 2. Winter 2002. pp. 18–38. Marian Hillar, “Laelius and Faustus Socinus Founders of Socinianism: Their Lives and Theology.” Part 2. Journal from the Radical Reformation. Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism, Vol. 10, No. 3. Spring 2002. pp. 11–24.</ref> and embraced by the [[Unitarian Church of Transylvania]] during the same period.<ref name="Treccani"/><ref name="Williams 1995"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Wilbur |first=Earl Morse |author-link=Earl Morse Wilbur |year=1952 |origyear=1945 |title=A History of Unitarianism: In Transylvania, England, and America |chapter=The Unitarian Church under Calvinist Princes: 1604-1691 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G5U9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA121 |location=[[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |volume=2 |pages=121–122}}</ref>

==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.

==Legacy==
[[image:Fausto Lelio Socino Socinus.jpg|thumb|Plaque in the Sozzini's palace in Siena to remember Fausto and Lelio Socini. The inscription say: "During ages of fierce despotism, with their new doctrines they awoke the free thought"]]
No authentic portrait of him exists; alleged likenesses on medals, etc., are spurious. The news of his uncle's death reached Fausto at Lyons through Antonio Maria Besozzo. Repairing to Zürich Fausto got his uncle's few papers, comprising very little connected writing but a good many notes.

Fausto continually gave credit to his uncle for many of his ideas, in particular noting:

# Fausto derived from Lelio in conversations (1552&ndash;1553) the germ of his theory of salvation;
# Fausto derived many interpretations of specific Bible verses from Lelio. For example, Lelio's reading (1561) of "In the Beginning" in [[John 1:1]] as "the beginning of the gospel" was taken up in Fausto's interpretation which denied the [[pre-existence of Christ]]. Likewise Lelio's interpretation of "Before Abraham was [[ego eimi|I am]]" John 8:58 as relating to the resurrection of Abraham was taken up by Fausto.

==Works==
Sozzini’s extant writings are:

*''De sacramentis dissertatio'' (1555), On the sacrament. four parts
*''De resurrectione'' On resurrection (a fragment 1549?)
*''Brevis explicatio in primum Iohannis caput'' Short explanation of John 1. published posthumously by Ferenc David in ''De falsa et vera unius Dei Patri, filii, et spiritus sancti'' 1568, [[Alba Iulia]]. This is often confused with the similarly titled ''Brevis explicatio in primum Iohannis caput'' (Amsterdam 1565)<ref>also published Alba Iulia 1568, by Francis David in his Refutatio propositionum Melii but misattributed as a second version of the commentary by Lelio Sozzini - which to an extent it is, but by the nephew.</ref>
*''Confessio Fidei'' (Zurich July 1555)
An extensive correspondence in Latin and Italian exists, consisting of 53 letters from and to Sozzini with Bullinger, Calvin and B. Amerbach.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|Literature}}
*[[Arianism]]
*[[Catholic Inquisition]]
*[[English Dissenters]]
*[[Heresy in Christianity]]
*[[History of Christian theology]]
*[[Polish Brethren]]
*[[Racovian Catechism]]
*[[Remonstrants]]
*[[Unitarianism]]

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Socinus}}
* Marian Hillar,  Laelius and Faustus  Socinus : Founders of Socinianism, Their Lives and Theology,  in "The Journal from the Radical Reformation. A Testimony to Biblical Unitarianism." (Part I, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2002; Part II, Vol. 10, No. 3, 2002)

{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:1525 births]]
[[Category:1562 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Christian biblical scholars]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian writers]]
[[Category:16th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:16th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:16th-century Protestant theologians]]
[[Category:Antitrinitarians]]
[[Category:Converts to Unitarianism from Catholicism]]
[[Category:Critics of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Holy Roman Empire]]
[[Category:Italian emigrants]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to the Dutch Republic]]
[[Category:House of Sozzini|Lelio]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]
[[Category:Immigrants to the Republic of Venice]]
[[Category:Italian biblical scholars]]
[[Category:Italian Christian theologians]]
[[Category:Italian emigrants to England]]
[[Category:Italian expatriates in France]]
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[[Category:Italian Protestants]]
[[Category:Italian Renaissance humanists]]
[[Category:Italian Unitarians]]
[[Category:Latin-language writers from Italy]]
[[Category:Victims of the Inquisition]]
[[Category:Writers from Siena]]