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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
death_n	wit_n	write_v	year_n	178	3	4.3905	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91323	The life of that incomparable man, Faustus Socinus Senensis, described by a Polonian knight. Whereunto is added an excellent discourse, which the same author would have had premised to the works of Socinus; together with a catalogue of those works.; Vita Fausti Socini Senensis. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4136; Thomason E1489_1; ESTC R203303	35,107	77

by his own sharp wit partly by the instruction of his Unkle Laelius especially when upon the rising of a sudden tempest he as we before hinted betook himself into France Although Laelius confiding in the wit of his Nephew did intimate more to his guess then deliver to his understanding concealing also some things from the yong man for the tryal of his judgement and openly presaging amongst his friends that these things should more fully and happily by Faustus be discovered to the world But when after the death of Laelius he was returned into Italy in that unsteddy age of his life his youth floating like a ship without a Pilot and carryed away with I know not what winds almost grew old amongst the Sirens of the Court. For being admitted into the Palace of Francis the grand Duk of Tuscany and very much endeared to him by honourable employments whilest he there flourished in highest favour and dignity he spent whole twelve yeers in the Court of Florence Then did he lose as he with perpetual grones complained the most flourishing part of his life if at least that time is to be accounted lost wherein his sublime judgement was formed not with the shadowy precepts of Learning but with the substantial experiments of Life wherein also that youthful heat of his evaporated which for the most part hurryeth great wits to great falls And indeed were we not otherwise assured of it yet from the very force of his wit we might conjecture with how vehement motions that nature of his was sometimes agitated About the close of that time his heart was touched with a serious deliberation concerning the choice of good things which he performed with such greatness of minde that he determined for the hope of heavenly things to trample under foot all the commodityes of earthly wishes wherefore without delay despairing to obtain from the extreamly unwilling Princes leave to depart he of his own accord forsook his countrey friends hopes and riches that he might the more freely employ himself about his own and other mens salvation That his service had not been ungrateful to the Grand Duke the longing after him being now absent and in exile shewed For sundry times by letters and messengers chiefly at the motion of Paulus Jordanus Vrsinus a noble man who had marryed the Grand Dukes sister he sollicited Socinus to return which he with usual modesty but resolute mind did refuse It was the yeer of our Lord 1574 and the five and thirtieth of his age when he retired out of Italy into Germany At his coming he was entertained by Basile that courteous receiver of Christ's exiles which had long since learned to cherish in her lap endangered Innocency Where he studyed Divinity full three yeers and upwards being chiefly intent upon the Sacred Scriptures to the sincere understanding whereof whilest he aspired with daily vows and prayers he was much helped with a very few writings of his Unkle Laelius and sundry scattered notes left by him Which thing though it was in his power to suppress it yet did he alwayes ingenuously own and profess As he lived at Basile untill the yeer 1575 he detained not within the closet of his private breast the truth that had been deposited with him And therefore whilest he endeavoureth to propagate unto others the light that was risen to himself he proceeded by degrees from reasoning with his friends to discourse with strangers and having begun his disputation concerning Jesus Christ the Saviour by word of mouth he afterwards comprised it in writing Which ere he could finish being first excluded by sickness from his studyes then by the pestilence from his books left at Basile he in the mean time dispatched at Zurich in the beginning of the yeer 1578 another Disputation with Franciscus Puccius and afterwards in the same yeer being returned to Basile he put the last hand to his book concerning the Saviour At that time the Transyivanian Churches were extremely infested with the opinion of Franciscus Davidis and others touching the Honour and Power of Christ To remedy which mischief Georgius Bl●ndra●a a man very powerful in those Churche● and with the Bath●rrea● Princes who then ruled the Nation in that very yeer of the Lord invited Socinus from Basile to the end he might draw the Ringleader of the Faction Franciscus Davidis from so gross and pernicious an error Which that it might the more commodiously be effected having at a great rate hired a lodging for Socinus with Franciscus Davidis he would have them both for above the space of four moneths to use the same house and table But the said Franciscus took far greater care how to retain his credit amongst those of his party then how to seek after the truth Whereupon adventuring not only to spread his error in private but publikely to proclaim it in the Pulpit lie drew present danger on himself being soon cast into prison by the command of the Prince of Transylvania where he shortly after ended his life Of whose death though Socinus was altogether guiltless yet did he not escape blame As if he were not able to vanquish the said Franciscus with other weapons when notwithstanding the disputations of both are published or that Magistrate was so addicted to the cause of Socinus as to employ the weapons of his authority for him or any one of his party But if perhaps some person who savored the cause of Socinus did incite the Prince to deal roughly with the said Franciscus whereof nevertheless I am not certain yet let not Socinus be blamed for him inasmuch as he could neither know his counsel nor approve his deed For to omit sundry other considerations there could not happen any thing more contrary to the mind of Socinus then that such a doctrine as could not be defended with the words and wit of the said Franciscus whilest he lived should seem to be confirmed by the mute but efficacious testimony of his death especially because carrying the face of a Martyrdome it presently turned the eyes of all men to it The Disputation of Secinus with him though written whilest the said Franciscus was alive could notwithstanding hardly come to light fifteen yeers after When this Disputation was finished in May anno 1579 and presented to the Transylvanian Churches Socinus could not long tarry there by reason of a Disease then raging which they commonly call the Colick Wherefore in the same yeer being now forty yeers old he travelled into Poland where he made suit publikely to be united to the Polonian Churches which acknowledge none but the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ to be the most High God but not concealing his dissent in certain doctrines here suffered a repulse very roughly and for a long time Nevertheless he being composed unto patience not so much by his natural inclination as by the resolution of his mind was no whit enraged with this disgrace nor ever gave any signes of a disaffected mind But rather

chiefly he instructed his countrey-men the Italians who by a pious and voluntary exile were scattered through several regions of Germany and Poland I finde in the commentaries of the Polonian Churches that he came twice into our countrey First about the yeer 1551. when he was six and twenty yeers old At what time he is said not without great success to have conversed with very many of the Polonian Nobility and to have caused Francis Lismaninus the Corcyraean confessor to Bona Sforzia the Queen and who was then if I be not mistaken the provincial of the Minorites and first lifted up an ensigne of revolt from the ●ope in this kingdome to cast away his Cowle But then in a few moneths space departing into Moravia he reti●●d thence to the Switzers His second coming into Poland I find to have happened after the death of his father Marianus who dyed at Bononia in the yeer 1556. For not long after about the yeers 1558 and 1559 he desired letters of recommendation from the Kings of Poland and Bohemia that he might the more securely treat with his friends in Venice concerning his Patrimony Then indeed it appeared to the greatest part of the German and Polonian Nobility in what favour he was For in his case there was very great canvassing both with Lud●vicus Priulus the Doge of Venice and Cosmus the grand Duke of Tuscany Almost about the same time a grievous storm arising upon a suspicion of Heresy did with a perillous gust shake the whole House of the Socini After the death of Alexander Laelius had three brethren surviving of whom Celsus lived at Bononia Cornelius and Camillus together with Faustus son to his brother Alexander dwelt at Sene. Amongst these also Laelius a marvellous Artist in suggesting the truth had scattered the seeds thereof and though he were separated by the remote distances of countries yet did he by effectual industry so cherish them that being unknown as yet and absent he drew the wives of some to his party Nor were there wanting amongst his other familiars and friends such as were either partners in the same designe or privy thereunto But the fair hope of that crop was blasted in the very blade Cornelius being taken and the rest either scattered or chased away This fear drave Faustus also then very yong not only out of his native City but out of Italy it self Who having lived a while at Lyons in Franc● Laelius was in the mean time ●xtinguished by an untimely death at Zurich Faustus being certified of his death by the letters of Marius Besozzus had much ado to prevent the snares laid for his papers yet got the possession thereof having been already by him informed of very many things which he afterwards in long progress of time did by his sharp wit and indefatigable study polish The death of Laelius happened on the third day after the Ides of May 1562 in the thirty seventh yeer of his age That so great a wit was not long-lived will not seem strange to him who shall consider how soon it was ripe He had hardly past the age of a stripling when he left Italy Within the six and twentieth yeer of his life having travelled almost through all the regions of the West he was by his great renown made known to most of the chief Nobility in sundry parts and perhaps to all learned men every-where It was well-nigh fifteen yeers that he was absent from his countrey Out of so small a space of life far journeys challenge a great part by means of which his exile became profitable to many in sundry coasts of Europe Adde his perpetual commerce with so many great men together with his continual intercourse of letters and when you have subtracted these things how small a pittance of time I pray you was left for his studyes And now being amazed we must enquire what was that so profound leasure what so vigorous industry what so ready wit what so vast understanding as was sufficient to master so many tongues so many sciences and withall to recollect the minde to it self and manage the greatest affairs To premise these things touching Laelius had I not listed of my own accord necessity it self did require For he it was who by his guidance and counsel drew Faustus himself and others to enter into that way which they afterwards followed Now I return to Faustus intending in the first place to relate in brief the course and chief occurrences of his life then to comprise his chief actions and lastly to add a few words concerning the habit of his mind and body as far as I have by a cursory enquiry attained the knowledge thereof He was born two hours and almost three quarters before Sun-rising on the Nones of December 1539 well-nigh fourteen yeers yonger then his Unkle Laelius He dyed in the yeer 1604 a little before the beginning of the spring being sixty five yeers old He first spent twenty and a little after twelve yeers of his age in his countrey about three in his retirement at Lyons the other thirty in voluntary exile He seemeth to have lost his parents at that age which is most apt for the improvement of learning and wit For he complaineth how he employed his labor in the studys of good arts very slightly and without the guidance of a teacher And elswhere how he had not learnt Philosophy nor ever was acquainted with School-divinity and confesseth that in Logick it self he never tasted but only certain rudiments and that very late It was a bassle to that proud age to be taught by so notable an instance that even without those helps which we though not without cause yet oftentimes without measure do admire there may be great men and such as will perform rare feats Perhaps also it was expedient that a wit born to take cognisance of the Opinions of the world should be tainted with no prejudices lest it should admit some string of those errours for the rooting out of which it grew up For Divinity being full of errors infected also Philosophy it self and almost all good arts And therefore not only in the cradle but also in the very rudiments of the first learning the infancy of the world hath now for a long time been deceived and sucked in opinions as true before it was able to judge whether they were false Whereby it cometh to pass that oftentimes it is better to be seasoned with none then with perverse doctrines nor is it a wonder that sometimes learned men dote more shamefully and the rude multitude judgeth more sincerely Which I would not have so taken as if I would condemn learning but only the abuse thereof nor give a check but a caution to it With such a slight tincture of learning and as I suppose with the study of the Civil law the first age of Socinus was taken-up untill the three and twentieth yeer Yet had he before sucked-in the principles of Divine Truth partly

undertook to repell with his wit the incursion of divers Adversaryes who then infested those Churches And first of all he received the charge of Andreas Volanus by refelling his Paraenesis and upon the same occasion at the request of Niemojevius the seventh Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans was explained Afterwards it pleased him to assail Jacobus Palaeologus whose reputation and Authority did at that time cherish the relicks of pernicious errors in men otherwise well-minded Him being somewhat roughly handled not out of hatred but advice he alwayes excused A little after when Volanus had renewed the fight he was again encountred and withall an Answer made to the Positions of the College of Ponsa Whilest Socinus undergoeth so much fighting and hatred for the patronage of the truth amongst so many enemies there wanted not some Calumniators Stephanus was then King of Poland A Pickthank blows his ears with the report of a book written against the Magistrate adding that it would be a very dishonorable thing to suffer a wandring Italian exile to escape scotfree with so bold an enterprise He hinted at the book against Palaeologus Which though it required no other testimony of its innocency then the reading yet did he think good to decline the danger Whereupon he departed from Cracovia where he had now lived four yeers to a Noble man named Christophorus Morstinus Lord of Pawlicovia in which place he defended his innocency not so much by skulking as by the Privilege of Nobility in our Nation For that suburb-farm is a few miles distant from Cracovia It seemed a wiser course to cleer himself from the crimes laid to his charge rather out of that place then out of prison Nor was he entertained in that hospitable house for that nick of time onely but there cherished for above three yeers And to the end that the curtesie shewed to an exile and stranger might be more abundant a little while after the daughter of the family a noble Virgin was at his suit given him in marriage so that being of a stranger become a son-in-law he seemed to have established his security in those places by affinities and friendships Whilest he lived in the countrey he wrote many notable pieces and chiefly that against Eutropius constantly defending the fame and cause of that Church which had with most unjust prejudice condemned him and caused him though innocent continually to suffer many indignityes His daughter Agnes was born to him in the yeer of our Lord 1587 and forty eighth of his age of whom being after her fathers death marryed to Stanislaus Wiszowatius a Polonian Knight there are as yet remaining nephews and nieces In September the same yeer he lost his wife Elizabeth which sad and disastrous chance was followed with a grievour fit of bodily sickness so obstinate that for certain moneths it caused the use of his studyes to cease And that no kind of calamity might be wanting almost about the same time by the death of Franciscus the Grand Duke of Tuscany the revenues of his estate which he received yeerly out of Italy were quite taken away from him Indeed a little before by the bitterness of Accusers and threats of Popes his estate came into danger But by the strenuous endeavour of Isabella Medicea the Grand Dukes sister who was marryed to the aforesaid Paulus Jordanus Vrsinus whilest she lived and afterwards by the favour of Franciscus the Grand Duke it came to pass that during his life Socinus received the yeerly income of his estate For indeed his old deserts were still so fresh in memory that those Princes though long since forsaken and oftentimes rejected did yet in a most difficult matter gratifie the letters and prayers of a condemned and exiled person Yea letters full of curtesie were sent unto him and he bidden to be of good chear for the future as long as they lived so that in setting forth books he suffered not his name to appear But those Princes were then taken away by a destiny disastrous to Socinus And that all things might seem to have conspired to the perplexity of the man being a widower sick and stripped of all his fortunes he was molested with the very times of our Commonwealth which were then exceeding turbulent because divers did contend who should be the King of Poland so that the adversaryes thereupon took greater license to themselves Socinus was now returned to Cracovia and sought solace in the midst of so many evils from the employment which God had imposed on him to purge the Church of such errors as were then rife in her Wherefore although he had been formerly accustomed to frequent Ecclesiastical Assemblies yet in the yeer 1588 in the Synod of Breste which is a Town on the borders of Lituania he disputed with greater earnestness and fruit then before touching the death and Sacrifice of Christ touching our Justification touching the Corrupted Nature of Man and finally with the Davidians and Budneists touching the Invocation of Jesus Christ This was the yeer wherein the care and charge of the Church at Luclavicia was committed to Petrus Sto●nius son to Petrus Statoriu● of Tho●●ville whose family having heretofore been naturalised into the Nobili-of our Nation hath even at this day some men surviving who have been invested with great Honors in our countrey He being no less sharp in judgement then ready in speech being once admitted into the friendship of Socinus yielded willingly to his Opinion A little before also he had privately drawn many of the chief ones into his Opinion and there was daily an accession made of such men as complyed with them Nevertheless certain men of very great authority still stood off as Niemojevius and Czechovicius together with the greatest part of the ancient Ministers The report is that Securinius was the first that adventured openly to maintain the Tenets of Socinus to which he had assented Not long after others followed Which party was exceedingly strengthened by the accession of the three Lubjenecii Andreas Stanislaus and Christophorus who being brethren of noble descent and born to very great hopes and brought up partly in the Kings Court partly in the society of the greatest Peers were by a sacred instinct transported from the midst of the allurements of this life to the care of Religion These men as they had by a most enflamed zeal trodden under foot all the impediments of piety so with an equal candor and greatness of mind they subscribed to the known Truth And now others of the pastors came-in a vye to the party especially the juniors who were less retarded with the prejudice of inveterate opinion and authority and that by reason of an accident very notable for the newness thereof which gave a memorable proof how great the force of the Truth is Amidst a great jarring of Opinions this was a laudable agreement of that Church that those men contended only with arguments and not with hatred And though they detested one anothers

opinions yet did they not condemne one another And therefore keeping mutual tolerance entire they oftentimes disputed very eagerly and this was the chief work of their Synods Wherefore anno 1585 in the Synod of Lublin the opinion of Socinus touching the seventh Chap. of the Romans was exceedingly agitated There were some that defended it but as great a number of Pastors that opposed it One whereof named Nicolaus Zilinius being willed by others of the same party to explain that Chapter contrary to the mind of Socinus and having to that purpose stoutly managed the matter falling in his discourse upon those words wherewith the Apostle giveth thanks to God for his freedome stood like a man amazed And by and by what is that freedome saith he What is that benefit which drew from the Apostle so great thanks was it that he was of necessity detained in so great a servitude of sin Certainly such a thing as this can at no hand gain approbation with me I therefore saith he in like manner give very great thanks to the Father of lights in that he would have the light of his truth arise unto me who am now freed from error Afterwards entering upon a contrary way of explaining he accurately disputed for the Orthodox Opinion When they whose cause he had undertaken being amazed did rebuke him his answer was that he could not resist the judgement of a convinced mind This business was of great moment for the propagation of the Truth nor did their endeavours less conduce thereunto who had lifted up the standard unto others to embrace it Amongst them the Eloquence of the foresaid Petrus Stoinius did excell That Elegant Tongue only had God bestowed on those Churches equal to the wit of Socinus and able to deliver in a popular manner his subtile senses that were above the capacity of the ruder sort and to commend them unto all by the genius of his flexanimous speech Him therefore as the chief Interpreter of his mind did Socinus make use of to the notable advantage of Gods Church And indeed certain things happened which did enforce a stricter union with him Socinus sojourning at Cracovia began long since to be environed with such dangers on every side as are for the most part wont to accompany the faithful servants of Christ How great an Indignity was there offered to him by that insolent soldier Vernecus he himself signifieth in a certain letter But above all after the printing of his book touching the Saviour the Adversaryes again began to shew the rancor of their hatred Whereupon in the yeer 1598 the Scholars having stirred up the dregs of the rabble took Socinus being then sick and minding the recovery of his health and pulling him out of his chamber half-naked drag him in a contumelious manner through the market and the the most noted streets the greatest part in the mean time crying out to have him brought to execution At length having been grievously handled in that furious rout he was with much adoe rescued out of the hands of the raging multitude by Martinus Vadovita Professor of Cracovia The plundering of his goods and houshold-stuff together with other things lyable to spoile did not so much grieve him as the irreparable loss of certain writings concerning which he often did profess that he would redeem it with the expense of his life Then perished together a notable labor of his against Atheists which he had undertaken to refute the ingenious Devices of a certain Great Man But when to so barbarous an example of cruelty threats were also added he departed from Cracovia to Luclavicia unto a certain village famous for his last habitation and death and distant about nine miles from Cracovia where having for certain yeers used the table and house of a Noble Man named Abrahamus Blonscius he lived a neighbor to Sto●nius Both therefore affording mutual help neer at hand in chasing away the relicks of errors had now brought almost that whole Church to an unanimous consent in all opinions for even Niemojevius himself having in most things already given assent to Socinus condemned his own mistakes with such ingenuity as can never sufficiently be extolled Czechovicius only could not be removed from his opinion Who as the better part prevailed conniving though with much adoe at other things a little after began to make a stir about the opinion concerning Baptism which nevertheless being suddenly according to the wish of Socinus laid asleep did afterwards vanish of its own accord Having thus fully purged the Church from errors as if his life had been prolonged hitherto for this purpose only he was at the end of winter in the sixty fifth yeer of his age taken away at Luclavicia by a death not so untimely to himself as sad to his followers His last words at his death were these namely that he no less full of envy and troubles then of dayes did with a joyful and undanted hope incline to the period of his appointed time which shewed to him both a discharge from his sorrows and a reward of his labours Petrus Stoinius who had been the associate of his life and labours was also the Praiser and in the yeer following the companion of his funeral For as if he had already ended the appointed task of his life he followed Socinus being hardly forty yeers old Having passed over the race of Socinus life through which we have made a short cut it remaineth that we stop a while in considering what he did and performed No man in our memory did better deserve of all the Christian world but chiefly of the Polonian Churches For first by setting out so many works he opened the genuine meaning of the Holy Scriptures in innumerable places Next he only shewed how to confirm with solid arguments and skilfully to defend from subtill cavills and sophisms those opinions touching the Person of God and Christ which he found already rife in Poland After that he happily extinguished some impious other prophane opinions whose deadly poison did by stealth insinuate it self into the bosome of the Church No man did more vigorously quell Judaizers he also exploded the opinion of the Chiliasts and many other fanatick dreams besides As for the errors received from the Reformed Churches which did in a great number as yet raign in that Church he did with a marvellous felicity root them out Such were that of Justification that of Appeasing the wrath of God that of Predestination that of the Servitude of the Will that of Original Sin that of the Lords Supper and Baptism together with other misconstrued Doctrines Finally having taken-away pernicious errors that he might not also leave any fopperyes in the Church he exterminated very many superstitions about indifferent things Of which sort was the over-much affectation of mean clothing and the eschewing of Magistracy and refusing to prosecute ones own right even without a desire of revenge and what other like spots there were caused by the