in church-history, a sect of Christian heretics, so called from their founder Faustus Socinus, a native of Siena in Italy. He, about the year 1574, began openly to declare against the catholic faith, and taught, 1. That the eternal Father was the only one God; that the Word was no more than an expression of the Godhead, and had not existed from all eternity; and that Jesus Christ was God otherwise than by his superiority above all creatures who were put in subjection to him by the Father. 2. That Jesus Christ was not a mediator between God and men, but sent into the world to serve as a pattern of their conduct. 3. That the punishment of hell will last but for a certain time, after which the body and soul will be destroyed. And, 4. That it is not lawful for princes to make war. These four tenets were what Socinus defended with the greatest zeal. In other matters, he was a Lutheran or a Calvinist; and the truth is, that he did but refine upon the errors of all the antitrinitarians that went before him.