636 THE EEFOEMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.
He doubted first the personality of the Holy Spirit, and then the eternal divinity of Christ. He disapproved the execution of Servetus, and advocated toleration.
Various complaints against Socinus readied Bullinger. Calvin requested him to restrain the restless curiosity of the sceptic. Vergerio, then at Tiibingen, Saluz of Coire, and other ministers, sent warnings. Bullinger instituted a private inquiry in a kindly spirit, and was satisfied with a verbal and written declaration of Socinus (July 15, 1555) to the effect that he fully agreed with the Scriptures and the Apostles' Creed, that he disapproved the doctrines of the Anabaptists and Servetus, and that he would not teach any errors, but live in quiet retirement. Bullinger protected him asfainst further attacks.
Socinus ceased to trouble the Reformers with questions. He devoted himself to the congregation of refugees from Locarno, and secured for them Oehino as pastor, but exerted a bad influence upon him. Fortified with letters of recommendation he made another journey to Italy, via Germany and Poland, to recover his property from the Inquisition. Calvin gave him a letter to Prince Radziwill of Poland, dated June, 1558, to further his object.^ But Socinus was bitterly disappointed in his wishes, and returned to Ziirich in August, 1559. The last few years of his short life he spent in quiet retirement. His nephew visited him several times, and revered him as a divinely illuminated man to whom he owed his most fruitful ideas.
The personal relation of Calvin and the elder Socinus is one of curious mutual attraction and repulsion, like the two systems which they represent.^
1 Ep. 2876 in Opera, XVII. 181 sq. Henry, III. Beilage, 128 sq., first published tliis letter of recommendation, hut misdated it, June, 1553. LeeHus did not start on his last journey to Italy before 1558.
2 Trechsel, II. 16(j, thus describes the personal relationsliip : "So vianche Erf(ihriin(] von Calvin's Schroffheit Lelio sowohl an sich selhst ah an ondern gemnrht hntte^ so war doch nichts im Stande, sein ac.htungsvolles Zutrauen zu dem
§ 129. BERNARDINO OCHINO. 1487-1565. 637
The younger Socinus, the real founder of the system called after him, did not come into personal contact with Calvin, and labored among the scattered Unitarians and Anabaptists in Poland.
Calvin took a deep interest in the progress of the Reformation in Poland, and wrote several letters to the king, to Prince Radziwill, and some of the Polish nobility. But when the writings of Servetus and antitrinitarian opinions spread in that kingdom, he warned the Polish brethren, in one of his last writings, against the danger of this heresy.
§ 129. Bernardino OcMno. 1487-1565.
Comp. § 40, p. 1G2, Ochino's Sermons, Tragedij, Catechism, Labijrinths, and Dialu(jues. His works are very rare; one of the best cuUeclions is in tiie library of Wolfenbuttel; copious extracts in Sclielhorn, Treclisel, Schweizer, and Benratli. A full list in Benrath's monograph, Appendix II. 374-382. His letters (Italian and Latin), ibid. Appendix I. 337-373. Ochino is often mentioned in Calvin's and Bullinger's correspondence.
Zaccakia Bovbkio (Rom. Catli.) in the Chronicle of the Order of the Capuchins, 1G30 (inaccurate and hostile), Bayle's "Diet." — Schkhiokn : Ergotzlichheiten aus der Kirchenhislorie, Ulm and Leipzig, 17(54, vol. IIL (with several documents in Latin and Italian). — Trechsel: Antitrinitarier, U. 202-270. — Schweizeu: Centialdogmen, I. 2!)7-300. — Cesark Cantu (Hon). Catli.) : GU Eretici d' Italia, Turin, 1560-1567, 3 vols. — BucHSENSciiUTz : Vie et Merits de B. 0., Strasbourg, 1872. — * Kakl Bexratii : Bernardino Ochino von Siena, Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Reformation, Leipzig, 1875 (384 pp. ; English translation by Helen Zim- MER\, with preface by William Arthur, London, 1876, .304 pp.; the letters of Ochino are omitted). — Comp. C. Schmidt in his Peter Martyr Vermigli (1858), pp. 21 sqq., and art. in Herzog^ X. 680-683. (This article is unsatisfactory and shows no knowledge of Benrath, although he is mentioned in the lit.)
ansserordentlicJien Maiine zn schwiicheit. Gerade ivie ein Pol den entgegenselzleu anzieht, so wurde Lelio's negative Natur von der positiven Calvin's unuii/liurlich angezogen,so konnte der Mann des Ztceifels nus einer Art von Instinkt nicht ttmhin bei dem Felsenmann des Glaubens, der mit beispielloser Kilhnheit iind Conserjiienz die Tie/en der Gottheit erforschte, gleichsam seine Ergiimimg zu surhen, ohne doss die totale Divergenz beider Naturen eine Uebereinstimmung des Denkens und der Ansichlen jemals envarten Hess."