Socinus (Faustus)

Summary

[In the article on Faustus Socinus Bayle continues the story of the sect's persecution but he also makes original observations about the epistemology and the psychology of religion, and about human behaviour. The Socinians questioned the Scriptures' divine inspiration, and rejected, inter alia, the doctrines of the Trinity and Hell. Orthodox Christians responded with the argument that carried weight with civic educators, that to deny divine retribution was to weaken the fear of God and so undermine public morals. In Remarks (I) and (L), Bayle restates his proposition of empirical politics (made earlier in his Pensées diverses sur la comète) that the presumption of a causal connection between absence of such beliefs and unsociable conduct was refuted by the evidence.]

Socinus (Faustus) was grandson of the foregoing [Marianus Socinus: 1482–1556], and main founder of a highly erroneous sect that goes by his name and which, notwithstanding persecution, flourished for a considerably long time in Poland (A). He was born in Sienna, on 5 November 1539. He studied indifferently in his youth. He knew only the classics and the basic elements of logic. The letters his uncle wrote to the family whereby they and their wives imbibed the seeds of heresy made a strong impression on him. So, not confident of his innocence, he fled with the rest when the Inquisition began to persecute the family. He was in Lyon when he heard of his uncle's death and he immediately set about gathering all the writings of the deceased.