I. LELIO FRANCESCO MARIA SOZINI (1525-1562) was born at Siena on Jan. 29, 1525. His family descended from Sozzo, a banker at Percena, whose second son, Mino Sozzi, settled as a notary at Siena in 1304. Mino Sozzi's grandson, Sozzino (d. 14?3), was ancestor of a line of patrician jurists and canonists, Mariano Sozzini senior (1397-1467) being the first and the most famous, and traditionally regarded as the first freethinker in the family. Lelio (who spells his surname Sozini, latinizing it Sozinus) was the sixth son of Mariano Sozzini junior (1482-1556) by his wife Camilla Salvetti, and was educated as a jurist under his father's eye at Bologna. He told Melanchthon that his desire to reach the fontes iuris led him to biblical research, and hence to rejection of "the idolatry of Rome." At Chiavenna in 1547 Sozini came under the influence of Camillo of Sicily, a gentle mystic, surnamed Renato, whose teaching at many points resembled that of the early Quakers. He travelled in Switzerland, France, England and Holland. Returning to Switzerland at the close of 1548, with com mendatory letters to the Swiss churches from Nicolas Meyer, envoy from Wittenberg to Italy, we find him (1549-50) at Geneva, Basle (with Sebastian MUnster) and Zurich (lodging with Pelli can). He is next in Wittenberg (July 155o to June 1551), first as Melanchthon's guest, then with Johann Forster for improve ment of his Hebrew. From Wittenberg he returned to Ziirich (end of 1551), after visiting Prague, Vienna and Cracow. Political events drew him back to Italy in June 1552; two visits to Siena (where freedom of speech was for the moment possible, owing to the shaking off of the Spanish yoke) brought him into fruitful contact with his young nephew Fausto. He was at Padua (not Geneva, as is often said) at the date of Servetus's execution (Oct. 27, 1553). Thence he made his way to Basle (Jan. 1554), Geneva (April) and Zurich (May), where he, eventually, took up his residence.
Of the Reformers, Bullinger was Sozini's closest intimate, his warmest and wisest friend. Sozini's theological difficulties turned on the resurrection of the body, predestination, the ground of salvation (on these points he corresponded with Calvin), the doctrinal basis of the original gospel (his queries to Bullinger), the nature of repentance (to Rudolph Gualther), the sacraments (to Johann Wolff). The fate of Servetus directed his mind to the problem of the Trinity. At Geneva (April 1554) he made in cautious remarks on the common doctrine, emphasized in a sub sequent letter to Martinengo, the Italian pastor. Bullinger, at the instance of correspondents (including Calvin), questioned Sozini as to his faith, and received from him an explicitly orthodox con fession (reduced to writing on July 15, 1555) with a frank reserva tion of the right of further enquiry. A month before this Sozini
had been sent with Martino Muralto to Basle, to secure Ochino as pastor of the Italian church at Zurich ; and it is clear that the minds of Sozini and Ochino acted powerfully on each other.
In 1556, by the death of his father, Sozini was involved in pe cuniary anxieties. He visited in 1558 the courts of Vienna and Cracow to obtain support for an appeal to the reigning duke at Florence for the realization of his own and the family estates. Sozini did not proceed beyond Venice. The Inquisition had its eye on the family ; his brother Cornelio was imprisoned at Rome; his brothers Celso and Camillo and his nephew Fausto were "reputati Luterani," and Camillo had fled from Siena. In Aug. 1559 Sozini returned to Zurich, where he died on May 14, 1562.
Sozini's extant writings are: (I) De sacramentis dissertatio (156o), four parts, and (2) De resurrectione (a fragment) ; these were first printed in F. et L. Socini, item E. Soneri tractatus (Amsterdam, 1654). To these may be added his Confession (1555), printed in Hottinger, Hist. ecctes. N.T. ix. 16, 5 (1667) ; and about 24 letters, not collected, but may be found dispersed, and more or less correctly given in Illgen, in Trechsel, in the Corpus reformatorum edition of Calvin's works, and in E. Burnat, L. Socin (1894) ; the handwriting of the originals is exceedingly crabbed. Sand adds a Rhapsodia in Esaiam prophetam, of which nothing is known. Beza suspected that Sozini had a hand in the De haereticis, an sint persequendi (1553) ; and to him has also been assigned the Contra libellum Calvini (1554) ; both are the work of Castellio, and there is no ground for attributing any part of them to Sozini. Beza also assigned to him (in 1567) an anonymous Explicatio (1562) of the proem of St. John's Gospel, which was the work of Fausto ; this error, adopted by Zanchi, has been a chief source of the misconception which treats Lelio as a heresiarch. In Franc Guinio's Defensio cath. doct. de S. Trin. (159o-91) is an anonymous enumeratio of motives for professing the doctrine of the Trinity, by some ascribed to Lelio ; by others, with somewhat more probability, to Fausto.
For the life of L. Sozini the best guide is Trechsel, Die Prot. antitrin. vor F. Socin, vol. ii. (1844) ; but there are valuable materials in Illgen, Vita L. Socini (1814), and especially Symbolae ad vitam et doctrinam L. Soc., etc. (1826). R. Wallace, Antitrin. biog. (185o), gives the ordinary Unitarian view, relying on Bock, Da Porta and Lubieniecki. See also Theological Review (July 187q), and Bonet-Maury, Early Sources of Eng. Unit. Christ. (trans. E. P. Hall, 1884). Use has been made above of unprinted sources.