Timeline of Socinianism

Emperor Constantine convenes the council that condemns Arius and introduces the term homoousios. From the Socinian perspective, the beginning of a politically enforced metaphysical speculation beyond Scripture.

Extends the trinitarian formula to include the Holy Spirit as a third person. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed becomes the standard of the imperial church.

Latin creed (Quicumque vult) with sharp anathemas concerning the Trinity. Binding in the West — exemplary of a language that Sozzini will later reject as un-biblical.

Luther's 95 theses inaugurate an age of the scripture principle. Socinianism arises in the spirit of this movement — and takes the scripture principle more consistently than the Reformers themselves.

The Spanish physician and theologian Michael Servetus publishes his anti-trinitarian magnum opus; in 1553 he is burned at the stake in Geneva at Calvin's instigation. A first signal of Reformation-era anti-trinitarianism.

Fausto Paolo Sozzini is born in Siena into a humanist family of jurists. His uncle Lelio Sozzini will later supply the first theological impulses.

In Vicenza a circle of Italian reformers (the Sozzini family, Renato, Gribaldi …) meets. Early anti-trinitarian questions mature here that will later be taken up in Poland.

Lelio dies in Zurich, leaving his nephew Fausto notes and letters. Calvin and Bullinger had described him as "theologically gifted but speculative".

An anti-trinitarian current separates from the Polish Calvinists — the Ecclesia Minor. It is the seed of the later Polish Brethren.

Sozzini writes his soteriological magnum opus against the doctrine of satisfaction. It circulates in manuscript, is first printed in 1594, and shapes the Socinian doctrine of redemption.

After stations in Florence and Basel, Sozzini settles in Poland and joins the Ecclesia Minor. He marries a Polish woman but never holds an official ministerial post.

At the heart of the Polish Brethren a humanist-theological academy with its own printing press is established. Until 1638 it is a place of study for theologians from across half of Europe.

Sozzini dies in Lusławice. His students — Schmalz, Crell, Stegmann, Wiszowaty — continue the work and systematize it in the Racovian Catechism.

Appears first in Polish. A considered summary of biblical-unitarian teaching in dialogue form. Latin in 1609, later German and English.

Sozzini's methodological scripture-principle work is printed posthumously. It defends the authority, clarity, and sufficiency of the Bible against humanist and Roman objections.

Under pressure from the Catholic Counter-Reformation, the Polish Sejm orders the academy and printing press to close. A first severe break for the Polish Brethren.

The Sejm decrees the Sozzini edict: Polish Brethren must leave the country or convert. The beginning of a Europe-wide diaspora — especially to the Netherlands, Transylvania, and Prussia.

Socinian writings shape Spinoza, Locke, Newton (privately), Milton, and early English unitarians such as John Biddle. The terms "rational religion" and "antitrinitarian" go back to this phase.

The Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum is published in Amsterdam — a multi-volume Latin edition of the Polish Brethren's writings. It becomes the central source for Enlightenment thought.

Theophilus Lindsey opens Essex Street Chapel as the first openly unitarian congregation in England — a direct branch of the Socinian inheritance.

Sozzini's exegetical method (language, context, reason) becomes a tool of historical-critical research. Many arguments of modern Trinity criticism are inconceivable without Socinianism.

The English theologian Anthony Buzzard becomes the best-known representative of biblical unitarianism today — through books, lectures, and the Atlanta Bible College.

Online platforms, podcasts, and free libraries (e.g. biblicalunitarian.com) make Socinian literature accessible to a new generation. Authors such as Dale Tuggy, Kegan Chandler, and Aleksandar Vuksanović shape the discussion.

English editions of Sozzini's principal works, annotated Bible verses, and a free library of anti-trinitarian literature — a digital counterpart to Raków.