Socinus

Peter Abelard (1079-1142), Socinus (1525-62), Kant (1724-1804), Schleiermacher (17681834) and Ritschl (1822-89) were the exponents of a doctrine of reconciliation based on the example of Christ rather than the emphasis on atonement.

Its members called themselves the "Polish Brethren," while their opponents called them "Arians." After a period of lively disputes, their doctrine and organization was unified by Faustus Socinus (1539-1604), whose followers were called Socinians.

Gorringe's main argument is that as alternative to the retributive, bloodthirsty atonement theology of expiration or propitiation there always existed a tradition of the atonement theology of reconciliation, represented by Abelard, Faustus Socinus, William Law and William Blake, among others, convincingly based on texts from both the Old and the New Testament, however ambiguous these may be.

Tinsley provides separate chapters analyzing Bayle's articles on five major Protestant reformers (Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, and Theodore Beza), six Protestant outsiders (Melchior Hoffman, Sebastian Franck, Sebastian Castellio, Bernardino Ochino, Francesco Stancaro, and Faustus Socinus), and two mutually contrasting Catholics (Desiderius Erasmus and Ignatius Loyola).

David Willis, "The Influence of Laelius Socinus on Calvin's Doctrines of the Merits of Christ and the Assurance of Faith" (1965), rpt.

(11.) HW 5: 256-57; note Hutchinson's criticism of Socinus (HW 5: 109).

Socinus's quarrel with the Anselmian analysis of the Atonement" (57).

As is known, Basel and Geneva remained, even after the death of Erasmus, a haven for the Paduan free thinkers (Lelius Socinus, etc.).