LELIUS,** the founder of the sect of the Socinians, was born of an illustrious house at Sienna in Tuscany in 1525. Being designed by his father for the family profession of the law, he began very early to search for the foundation of that science in the word of God, and by that study discovered that the Romish religion taught many things contrary to revelation. Being desirous of penetrating farther into the true sense of the scriptures, he studied Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic. In 1548 he left Italy, to go and converse with the Protestants, and spent four years in travelling through France, England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland, and at length settled at Zürich. He by this means became acquainted with the most learned men of his time; but as he discovered to them his doubts, he was greatly suspected of heresy. Bullinger took a great interest in him; and Calvin, who had repeatedly broken off correspondence with him, could not forbear renewing it, and giving him a friendly warning regarding his doubts on the subject of the resurrection, baptism, the Trinity, &c. "And in truth," says Calvin (see his *Letters*, 1551, translated at Edinburgh, 1856), "I am very greatly grieved that the fine talents with which God has endowed you should be occupied, not only with what is vain and fruitless, but that they should also be injured by pernicious fancies. What I warned you of long ago, I must again seriously repeat, that unless you correct in time this itching after investigation, it is to be feared you will bring upon yourself severe suffering." The fate of Servetus, the following year, completed the effect of this letter, and henceforward he maintained a dignified silence in his resort at Zürich. He, however, conducted himself with such propriety, that he lived among the capital enemies of his opinions without receiving the least injury. He met with some disciples, who heard his instructions with respect: these were Italians who had left their native country on account of religion, and wandered about in Germany and Poland. He communicated likewise his sentiments to his relations by his writings, which he caused to be conveyed to them at Sienna. He died at Zürich in 1562, aged 37 years. Those who were of sentiments opposite to his, and were personally acquainted with him, confess that his outward behaviour was blameless. Ilgen, in his *Vita Leilii Socini*, attributes to him the work published on occasion of the death of Servetus, entitled *Martini Bellii Farrago de Hereticis*, 1553. This book has likewise been ascribed to Castalio. L. Socinus also wrote *Paraphrasis in Initium Evangelii S. Johannis, scripta* in 1561.
Faustus,** nephew of the preceding, and principal founder of the Socinian sect, was born at Sienna in 1539. The letters which his uncle Lelius wrote to his relations, and which infused into them many seeds of heresy,
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**Tabular View of the more important Societies of the United Kingdom.**
| Place of Meeting and Name | Annual Subscription | Date of Foundation | |---------------------------|--------------------|-------------------| | LONDON.—Archaeological Institute of Great Britain | £1 s. d. Year | 1843 | | Architectural Association | 0 12 6 1842 | | Architectural Museum | 1 1 0 1853 | | Art-Union of London | 1 1 0 1837 | | Arundel Society | 1 1 0 1849 | | British Archaeological Association | 1 1 0 1843 | | British Association for the Advancement of Science (Perambulatory) | 1 0 0 1831 | | British Institution for the Fine Arts | 3 3 0 1805 | | Cambrian Archaeological Association | 1 1 0 1846 | | Camden Society | 1 0 0 1833 | | Chemical Society | 2 0 0 1841 | | Chatham Society | 1 0 0 1843 | | Entomological Society | 1 1 0 1833 | | Geological Society of London | 3 3 0 1807 | | Graphic Society | 1 1 0 1833 | | Hekluyt Society | 1 1 0 1846 | | Horticultural Society of London | 4 4 0 1804 | | Institute of Actuaries | 3 3 0 1848 | | Institution of Civil Engineers | 3 3 0 1818 | | Linnean Society | 3 0 0 1788 | | Medical Society of London | 1 1 0 1773 | | Microscopical Society | 1 1 0 1839 | | Middlesex Archaeological Society | 0 10 0 1855 | | Numismatic Society | 1 1 0 1837 | | Parker Society | 1 1 0 1840 | | Ray Society | 1 1 0 1844 | | Royal Academy of Arts | None 1768 | | Royal Society | 4 0 0 1634 | | Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland | 3 3 0 1823 | | Royal Astronomical Society | 2 2 0 1820 | | Royal Botanic Society of London | 2 2 0 1839 | | Royal Geographical Society of London | 2 0 0 1830 | | Royal Institute of British Architects | 2 2 0 1834 | | Royal Institution of Great Britain | 5 5 0 1800 | | Royal Medico and Chirurgical Society | 3 3 0 1805 | | Royal Polytechnic Institution | 2 2 0 1838 | | Royal Society of Literature of the U.K. | 2 2 0 1823 | | Social Science Association (Perambulatory) | 1 1 0 1857 | | Society of Arts | 2 2 0 1745 | | Society of Antiquaries of London | 2 2 0 1717 | | Society of Painters in Water-Col. (Old) | None 1804 | | Society of Painters in Water-Col. (New) | None 1834 |
| Place of Meeting and Name | Annual Subscription | Date of Foundation | |---------------------------|--------------------|-------------------| | LONDON.—Statistical Society | £1 s. d. Year | 1844 | | Surrey Archaeological Society | 0 10 0 1854 | | Sydenham Society | 1 1 0 1843 | | United Service Institution | 0 10 0 1830 | | Zoological Society of London | 3 0 0 1826 | | Oxford.—Architectural Society of Oxford. | 1 1 0 1839 | | Ashmolean Society | 1 1 0 1828 | | Cambridge.—Cambridge Philosophical Society | 1 1 0 1819 | | Cambridge Antiquarian Society | 1 1 0 1839 | | Cambridge Architectural Society | 0 10 0 1847 | | EDINBURGH.—Royal Society of Edinburgh | 3 3 0 1739 | | Royal Scottish Society of Arts | 1 1 0 1821 | | Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh | 0 5 0 1771 | | Royal Inst. for the Fine Arts in Scotland | None 1819 | | Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, &c | None 1828 | | Royal Association for the Fine Arts | 0 5 0 1833 | | Harveian Society | 0 5 0 1782 | | Medico-Chirurgical Society | 0 5 0 1821 | | Educational Institute of Scotland | 0 5 0 1847 | | Highland and Agricultural Society | 1 3 6 1784 | | Architectural Institute of Scotland | 1 1 0 1850 | | Juridical Society of Edinburgh | 1 1 0 1773 | | Botanical Society | 0 12 6 1836 | | Caledonian Horticultural Society | 1 1 0 1809 | | Society of Antiquaries of Scotland | 1 1 0 1780 | | Edinburgh Philosophical Institution | 1 1 0 1846 | | Glasgow.—Maitland Club | 3 3 0 1828 | | Philosophical Society of Glasgow | 0 15 0 1802 | | Aberdeen Philosophical Club | 1 1 0 1832 | | DUBLIN.—Royal Dublin Society | 2 2 0 1731 | | Royal Irish Academy | 2 2 0 1785 | | Royal Hibernian Academy | None 1823 | | Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland | 1 1 1 6 1839 | | Royal Zoological Society of Ireland | 1 0 0 1831 | | Geological Society of Dublin | 1 0 0 1832 | | Dublin Natural History Society | 1 0 0 1838 | | Dublin Statistical Society | 0 10 0 1847 | | Irish Archæological and Celtic Society | 1 0 0 1854 | | Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland | 1 0 0 1841 | | Belfast.—Chemico-Agricultural Society | 1 1 0 1845 | | Ulster | 1 1 0 1821 | | Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society | 1 1 0 1821 | made an impression upon him; so that, knowing himself not innocent, he fled as well as the rest when the Inquisition began to persecute that family. He was at Lyon when he heard of his uncle's death, and he departed immediately to take possession of his writings. He returned to Tuscany; and made himself so agreeable to the grand duke, that the charms which he found in that court, and the honourable posts which he filled there, hindered him for twelve years from remembering that he had been considered as the person who was to put the last hand to the system of divinity, of which his uncle Lelius had made a rough draught. At last he went into Germany in 1574, and paid no regard to the grand duke's advice to return. He stayed three years at Basel, and there studied divinity; and having adopted a set of principles very different from the system of Protestants, he resolved to maintain and propagate them; for which purpose he wrote a treatise De Jesu Christo Servatore. In 1579 Socinus retired into Poland, and desired to be admitted into the communion of the Unitarians; but as he differed from them on some points, on which he refused to be silent, he met with a repulse. He did not, however, cease to write in defence of their churches against those who attacked them. At length his book against James Palaeologus furnished his enemies with a pretence to exasperate the King of Poland against him; but though the mere reading of it was sufficient to refute his accusers, Socinus thought proper to leave Cracow, after having resided there four years. He then lived under the protection of several Polish lords, and married a lady of a good family; but her death, which happened in 1587, so deeply afflicted him as to injure his health; and to complete his sorrow, he was deprived of his patrimony by the death of Francis de' Medici, Great Duke of Florence. The consolation which he found in seeing his sentiments at last approved of by several ministers was greatly interrupted in 1598; for he met with a thousand insults at Cracow, and was with great difficulty saved from the hands of the rabble. His house was plundered, and he lost his goods; but this loss was not so uneasy to him as that of some manuscripts, which he extremely regretted. To deliver himself from such dangers, he retired to a village about nine miles distant from Cracow, where he spent the remainder of his days at the house of Abraham Blonski, a Polish gentleman, where he died in 1604. All Faustus Socinus's works are contained in the first two volumes of the great collection entitled Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum.
The followers of the Socini were called Socinians. They maintain—"That Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person, but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given in the Holy Scriptures to Jesus Christ; but contend that it is only a deputies title, which, however, invests him with an absolute authority over all created beings, and renders him an object of worship to men and angels. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness; and say that Christ only preached the truth to mankind, set before them in himself an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin and absolute predestination, they esteem scholastic chimeras. They likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which they say becomes insensible at death, and is raised again with the body at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration in proportion to their demerits."