SOCIETE EVANGELIQUE DE GENEVE. See
Evangelical Society of Geneva.
SOCIETY OF MARY: 1. Marist Fathers: A religious order founded in 1816 uniting the work of education with that of missions. The founder was Jean Claude Marie Colin (b. at Saint Bonnet-le- Troncy, in the diocese of Lyons, Aug. 7, 1790; d. at Notre-Dame-de-la-Neyliere, in the department of Rhone, Feb. 28, 1875), who persuaded his brother and some others to join in the organization of an order under provisional rules drawn up by him. He received the approbation of Pius VII. in 1818, and the members took up the task of preaching in the neglected parts of the diocese, and in 1829, having greatly increased in numbers, assumed charge of the ecclesiastical seminary of Belley. In 1835 the attention of the Holy See was turned to the South Sea Islands and the need for workers there; the Marists were asked to undertake missions in those regions, and accepted the invitation, upon which Gregory XVI. approved the Society of Mary in the brief Omnium gentium of Apr. 29, 1836, final sanction being given by Pius IX., Feb. 28, 1873. The mother house is at Lyons, but the order has spread until it consists of six provinces, two in France, one in the British Isles, one in the United States, one in New Zealand, and one in Oceania. In the United States the order has an archbishop, 105 priests, 75 novices, 5 lay brothers, 2 training-houses, 4 colleges, and 18 parishes besides missions. The government is under a superior general, with four assistants, a general procurator, a procurator apud sanctum sedem, and the first alone is elected for life; the official residence of the general officers is Rome.
2. Society of Mary of Paris: A society founded in 1817 by William Joseph Chaminade, the primary purpose of which is the salvation of its own members, and then all works of zeal. The formation of the society was stimulated by a desire to strengthen the church after the losses occasioned by the French Revolution, and various sodalities were formed, the culmination of which was the society under discussion. One of the peculiarities of this organization is the inclusion of both clerical and lay members, bound together by the vows of poverty, celibacy, obedience, and stability in the service of the Virgin, and employed in various works of mercy and service. Since the expulsion of the order from France in 1903, the headquarters are at Nivelles, Belgium, where the superior general resides. The order comprises seven provinces, and has houses in the principal countries of Europe outside Great Britain, also in Africa, China, Japan, the Hawaiian Islands, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In the last the society settled in 1849, and it reports there 2 normal schools, 4 colleges, 3 high schools,
Society Socinue
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
and 44 parochial schools, principally in the Middle
West.
Bibliography: On 1: The Constitutions were published at Lyons, 1873, and the Statuta capitulorum generalium in the same place, 1907. Consult: Life of Venerable Fr. Colin, St. Louis, 1909; Pere Colin, Lyons, 1898; Pire Colin, ib. 1900; Mangeret, Les Origines de la foi catholique en Xouvelle-Zelande, ib. 1892; C. Egremont, L' Annie de I'eglise 1900, Paris, 1901; Baunard, Un siecle de I'eglise de France, ib. 1902; Hervier, Les Missions maristes, ib. 1902; Heimbucher, Orden und Kongregationen, iii. 339-343.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. See Tract Societies, III., 2.
SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL IN FOREIGN PARTS. See Missions to the Heathen, B, II., 4, § 4.
SOCINUS, so-sai'nus, FAUSTUS, SOCINIANS.
I. History.
Faustus Socinus (§1). Early Socinian Movement (§ 2). The Dispersion (§ 3). II. Doctrines of the Socinians, or Older Unitarians. Scripture (§ 1). God (§ 2).
Creation; Man (§ 3). Christology (§4). Work of Christ (§ 5). Soteriology; the Church; Eschatology (§6).
I. History: As a radical by-product of the Reformation appeared the antitrinitarian movement. At first it was represented by such individuals as
the Anabaptists Hans Denk, Ludwig
i. Faustus Haetzer, and Jakob Kautz (qq.v.),
Socinus. and by Michael Servetus (q.v.) and
his followers (G. V. Gentile, Georgius Blandrata; qq.v.), but there was as yet no unity of organization. To it belonged also Laelius Socinus (q.v.); but the founder of the antitrinitarians as a sect was his nephew, Faustus Socinus (Fausto Sozzini; b. at Siena 1539; d. at Luclawice, near Cracow, Mar. 3, 1604). He was early left an orphan, and his education was defective. He devoted himself to the study of law like his relatives, specially Laelius, by correspondence with whom he derived anti-Roman religious and theological instruction. He lived at Lyons, 1559-62, and at Zurich, 1562, where he was absorbed in the study of the literary fragments of his uncle, and began his literary activity with Explicatio prima partis primi capitis Evangelii Johannis (Rakow, 1562), a sort of program of antitrinitarianism. During 1562-74 he, decked with honors, held official positions at the court of Francesco de Medici at Florence, and indulged in the diversions of the period. At Basel, 1574-78, he elaborated his system, originating two of his most important works: De Jesu Christo servatore (Basel, 1594) against the French Reformed clergyman J. Covet, and De statu primi hominis ante lapsum (Rakow, 1610) against F. Pucci of Florence. He accepted an invitation of Georgius Blandrata (q.v.) to Transylvania, unsuccessfully aiding the latter in attempting to dissuade Franciscus Davidis (q.v.) from his non-adorant views. The theological turmoil, together with the outbreak of the pest, caused him to leave Transylvania, 1579, and proceed to Poland, where the name Socinus had acquired fame from his uncle's two sojourns (1556 and 1558), and where the Unitarian movement was
gaining in political influence. Here (1579-1604) he made an earnest effort to unite the divergent parties into one organization. In Cracow, 1579-83, he endeavored in vain to join with the Polish Brethren, a society of Unitarians, but was hindered by his refusal to be rebaptized.
In common with the Anabaptists, the Unitarians strongly objected to the holding of political office, resorting to the civil courts, and military service. Theological differences also existed among Arians on the preexistence of Christ, on chiliasm,and the nonadoration of Christ (see Davidis, Franciscus, §§ 4-5); but by disputations in synods, by special discussions, and a number of literary works, Socinus finally succeeded in bringing about harmony and the acceptance of his own views. His idea of baptism (see below) prevailed over the Anabaptist at the Synod of Rakow, 1603. In 1583 he left Cracow from fear of the persecution of King Stephen Bathory and settled at Pawlikowice, a village near Cracow. He returned to Cracow, 1585-87, attending the Synod of Brzesc in Lithuania in 1588, where, by the brilliant success of his theological disputations, he permanently confirmed his influence over the Unitarians. Several times he was ill-treated ; thus, in 1594, by a troop of soldiers, and on Ascension day, 1598, when students of Cracow, incited by Roman priests, threw him out of his sick-bed, carried him half-naked through the streets, and inflicted bloody injuries. Only by the mediation of Martin Vadovita, a professor of the university, did he escape death by drowning. During the assault all the papers, manuscripts, and books found in his house were burned on the market-place. He next lived at Luclawice, 1598-1604. His works, exegetical, polemical, and dogmatic, appeared in vols, i.-ii., Bibliotheca fratrum Polonorum, edited by his grandson, Andreas Wiszowaty (Irenopolis [Amsterdam], 1656 and after); also under the special title, Fausti Socini Senensis opera omnia. The most important dogmatic works are, Prmlectiones theological (Rakow, 1609); Christiana? religionis brevissima institutio per interrogations et responsiones, quam catechismum vulgo vacant (1608); and Fragmentum catechismi prioris F. L. S., qui periit in Cracoviensi rerum ejus direptione. Immediately after the death of Socinus appeared the Racovian Catechism, the chief symbol of the Socinians. The work of revising the catechism of 1574 was assigned to Socinus and another Unitarian, Statorius. Both worked independently; the Institutio of Socinus was left unfinished at his death; and after the death subsequently of Statorius the work was completed on the basis of the manuscripts of Socinus by Valentin Schmalz, Hieronymus Moskorzowski, and Johann Volkel (published in Polish, 1605; larger German ed., 1608; in Lat., Catechesis ecclesiarum, ed. and enlarged by Moskorzowski and dedicated to James I. of England, and briefly cited as Catechismus Racoviensis, 1609; another Latin ed. with emendations and additions by Johann Crell and Johann Schlichting, furnished probably by Wiszowaty and Joachim Stegman, Jr., Amsterdam, 1665; with much added matter, 16X4; Eng. transl., by Thomas Rees, London, 1818).
Until the death of Socinus Unitarianism was in