§ 130. c^Lius SECUNDUS cuiMo. 1503-1569. Gol
it, and one of his last known utterances was : " I wish to be neither a BuUingerite, nor a Calvinist, nor a Papist, but simply a Christian." ^
His sceptical views on the person of Christ and the atonement disturbed and nearly broke up the Italian congregation in Ziirich. No new pastor was elected; the members coalesced with the German population, and the antitrinitarian influences disappeared.
§ 130. Ccelius Secundus Curio. 1503-1569.
Curio's works and correspondence. — Trechsel, I. 215 sqq., and Wagemann in Herzog,'^ III. 396-400 (where the literature is given).
Celio Secundo Curione or Curio Avas the youngest of twenty-three children of a Piedmontese nobleman, studied history and law at Turin, became acquainted with the writings of Luther, Zwingli, and Melanchthon through an Augustinian monk, and labored zealously for the spread of Protestant doctrines in Pavia, Padua, Venice, Ferrara, and Lucca. He barely escaped death at the stake, and fled to Switzerland with letters of recommendation by the Duchess Renata, the friend of Calvin. He received an appointment as professor of eloquence in Lausanne (1543-1547) and afterwards in Basel. He was the father-in-law of Zanchius. He attracted students from abroad, declined several calls, kept up a lively coirrespondence with his countrymen and with the Reformers, and wrote a number of theological and literary works. He sided with the latitudinarians, and thereby lost the confidence of Calvin and Bullinger; but he maintained his ground in Basel, and became the ancestor of several famous theological families of that city (Buxtorf, Z winger, Werenfels, Frey).
Curio sympathized with Zwingli's favorable judgment of the noble heathen, and thought that they were as acceptable
1 From a letter of Knibb to Bullinger, Easter, 1664, in the Simler Collection in Ziirich. Trechsel, II. 265; Benrath, 315.
652 THE KEFOEMATION IN FP.ENCH SWITZEELAiSi).
to God as the pious Israelites. Vergerio, formerly a friend of Curio, charged him with the Pelagian heresy and with teaching that men may be saved without the knowledge of Christ, though not without Christ.^
Curio advanced also the hopeful view that the kingdom of heaven is much larger than the kingdom of Satan, and that the saved will far outnumber the lost.^
Such opinions were disapproved by Peter Mart3^r, Zanchi, BuUinger, Brenz, John a Lasco, and all orthodox Protestants of that age, as paradoxical and tending to Universalism. But modern Calvinists go further than Curio, at least in regard to the large majority of the saved.^
§ 131. The Italian Arititrinitarians in Greneva. Crribaldo, Biandrata^ Aleiati, G-entile.
See lit. in § 127, and Sandius : Bibliotheca antitrinitaria. Trechsel (I. 277- 390) is still the best authority on the early Antitrinitarians in Switzerland, and gives large extracts from the sources. Fock (I. 134) has only a few words on them. — Comp. in addition, Hebekle : G. Blandrata, in the "Tvibinger Zeitschrift fiir Theologie," for 1840, No. IV. Dornek: Hist, of Christolo(jij, German ed., II. 656 sqq.
The antitrinitarian leaven entered the Italian congregation at Geneva during and after the trial of Servetus, but was suppressed by the combined action of the Swiss Churches. This constitutes the last chapter of Antitrinitarianism in Switzerland.
^ "Absque Christi cognitione, licet non sine Christo, aliqnos salutem adipisci.'' Letter of Vergerio to Bullinger (Tubingen, Sept. 6, 1554), quoted by Trechsel, I. 217. Vergerio denounced Curio to the Swiss Churches. See his letters to Amerbach, in Trechsel, II. 463-465.
^ De amplitudine beati regni Dei dialogi II. Printed at Poschiavo in the Grisons, 1554.
^ Dr. Charles Hodge {Syst. Theol. III. 879 sq.) says: "We have reason to believe, as urged in the first volume of this work, and as often urged elsewhere, that the number of the finally lost in comparison with the whole number of the saved will be very inconsiderable."
§ 131. THE ITALIAN ANTITRmiTARIANS IN GENEVA. 653
Several Italian refugees denounced the execution of Servetus, adopted his views and tried to improve them, but were far inferior to him in genius and originality.
They circulated libels on Calvin, and ventilated their opinions in the weekly conference meetings of the Italian congregation, which were open to questions and free discussions.
1. Matteo Gribaldo, a noted professor of jurisprudence at Padua, bought the estate of Farges in the territory of Bern, near Geneva, and spent there a part of each year. He attended the Italian meetings on his visits to the town. During the trial of Servetus he openly expressed his disapproval of civil punishment for religious opinions, and maintained that everybody should be allowed to believe what he pleased. He at first concealed his views on the doctrine of Servetus, except among intimate friends. After an examination before the Council, he was ordered to leave the city on suspicion of heretical opinions on the Trinity (1559). These opinions were crude and undigested. He vacillated between dyotheism or tritheism and Arianism. He could not conceive of Father and Son except as two distinct beings or substances : the one begetting, the other begotten ; the one sending, the other sent. He compared their relation to that between Paul and Apollos, who were two individuals, yet one in the abstract idea of the apostolate.
Before his dismission from Geneva he had, through the influence of Vergerio, received an appointment as professor of law in the University of Tiibingen. Passing through Ziirich he called on Bullinger, and complained bitterly of the conduct of Calvin. He gained the applause of the students in Tiibingen, and was often consulted by Duke Christopher of Wiirtemberg on important matters.
But rumors of his heresies reached Tiibingen, and inquiries were sent to Geneva. Calvin warned his old teacher, Melchior Volmar, against him, and Beza alarmed Vergerio by unfavorable reports. Vergerio informed tlie Duke of the charges.