Lelio Sozzini

[6][7] At this period, the standpoint of Sozzini was that of evangelical reform of the Christian faith; he exhibits a singular union of enthusiastic piety with subtle theological speculation.

At Chiavenna in 1547 he came under the influence of Paolo Ricci "Camillo Renato" of Sicily, a gentle Christian mystic whose teaching at many points resembled that of the early Quakers.

Pursuing his religious travels throughout early modern Europe, his family name and his personal charm ensured him a welcome in the Old Swiss Confederacy, the kingdoms of France and England, and the Republic of the Netherlands.

Returning to Switzerland at the close of 1548, with commendatory letters to the Swiss Protestant churches from Nicolas Meyer, envoy from Wittenberg to Italy, we find him at Geneva, Basel (with Sebastian Münster), and Zürich (lodging with Konrad Pelikan) between the years 1549–1550.

Sozzini'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), and the sacraments (to Johann Wolff).

Bullinger, at the instance of correspondents (including Calvin), questioned Sozzini as to his faith, and received from him an explicitly orthodox confession (reduced to writing on 15 July 1555), with a frank reservation of the right of further inquiry.

With influential introductions (one from Calvin) he visited in 1558 the courts of Vienna and Kraków to obtain support for an appeal to the reigning duke at Florence for the realization of his own and the family estates.

Curiously enough Melanchthon's letter introducing Sozzini to Maximilian II invokes as an historic parallel the hospitable reception rendered by the Emperor Constantine to Athanasius when he fled from Egypt to Trier.