VI - Socinianism spreads worldwide
Final installment in "Michael Servetus and the Socinians" in which the work of Faustus Socinus leads to the global spread of Socinianism, a movement felt even today.
Updated: September 21, 2024
Faustus Socinus’ impact felt amongst Polish Brethren
The Italian Fausto Sozzini (1539 - 1604), commonly known as Faustus Socinus, was instrumental in fully developing the Polish Brethren into what would become Socinianism.1
In the previous installment, I gave a bird’s eye view of the life of Faustus Socinus, specifically how this Italian thinker he ended up living in Poland. His intellectual curiosity, his sharp mind and his humility was just what the Polish Brethren needed at the time. Socinus didn’t dwell on superstitions and whatever the mainstream churches passed as theology. Reason formed the basis of his theology. Rationalism was his ultimate authority. He didn’t defer to others nor to the volumes of Church writings printed on every imaginable theological subject (read Scholasticism). This was radical thinking in an age when tradition ruled.
For Socinus, if all the world believed “A” but reason proved “B”, he accepted “B”.
But he didn’t accompany his reas…
