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    of imminent danger , and with talents and attainments of the most splendid description . Two distinguished individuals of this naitoe , LseliuB and Faustus Socinii 8 j are frequently mentioned > n the ecclesiastical annate and religious controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries . It may , however , be questioned , whether much is actually known of them in this country , by the majority either of those who habitually vilify , or of t&ose who commend

    and eulogise them , beyond the vague and uncertain infornratiofl conveyed by public rumour , which is often corrupted and falsified by prejudice and bigotry . Of Laelius there exists no good account that is accessible to the English reader ; and the memoirs that are extant of Faustus , though in many respects valuable , are not , in their arrangement and style , very inviting to moderft taste ; not to add , that at present they are to be classed among scarce books . *

    For these reasons it may be gratifying to many to irasert , at theoommeneement of a New Series of the Monthly Repository , a detailed and faithful account of these Unitarian confessors . It may probably add to the interest of these Memoirs to prefix to them some biographical notices of such other members of their family as are known to history by their learning , their talents , their character , and their literary celebrity .

    The Socini f were natives of Siena in Tuscany . For many generations they maintained a high reputation in their native city , and connected themselves by marriage with some of the principal families in the north of Italy . On the female side they were allied to the Salvetti , a Florentine family of rank ; to the Petrucci > who were for some time at the head of the republic of Siena ; and to the Piccoluommi , who gave to the papal chair two pontiffs in the persons of Pius the second and third .

    The Socini possessed a handsome mansion in Siena . It has now disappeared , and the site is occupied by the Palazzo Malevolti . About six miles from the city , proceeding from the Porta Ovile , they had also a country residence called Scopeto , a name which it derived from a heath / 'Erica Scoparia , Lin . ) growing in bushes two or three feet high , with which the neighbouring land is covered . The house stands on a gentle elevation by the side of a forest , and commands a fine view in the direction of the town .

    The mansion is old , and the tower , which is of stone , appears to be of still greater antiquity . Attached is a small chapel , containing a picture of St . Bernardin , ana St . Catherine of Siena . The garden , contrary to the usual style of Italian villas , is laid out somewhat in the English manner . A walk * shaded by ancient cypresses , connects it with a wood , which is intersected by avenues . In one of these stood a venerable Ilex ( the holm oak ) , which long formed am object of particular attention to travellers , being marked out by tradition as the tree under which Faustus Socinus had sate and studied . This

    Ilex was surrounded by a low-walled seat , which still remains , and now alone marks the spot where it had reared its mighty trunk . Having fallen into decay , it was condemned to the axe and the fire . Portions of it were , however , taken away by the curious , as relics sacred to the memory of those who were supposed to have been once its proprietors . Scopeto continued , until a very recent period , to be the residence of a branch of the Socinus family .

    * The works here referred to are ihe Life of FaunUis Socinus , by a Polonian Knight ( Przypcovius ) , of which Biddle published an English translation in 1653 * and Memoirs of his Life , Character , Sentiments and Writings , by Doctor Toulmin , printed in 1777 ; both of which will be more particularly noticed hereafter . f In Italian , the name is variously written—Zozini , Sozzini , Soccini , & . C . The latinized form Socinusy being most familiar , will be used in thefce paper * .

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    2 $ Memoirs of the < &ociJtt *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1827, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1792/page/22/