Henry Van Balen. His genius first displayed itself only in painting fruit. He afterwards attempted animals, hunting, fish, &c. in which kind of study he succeeded so greatly, as to surpass all that went before him. Snyders's inclination led him to visit Italy, where he stayed some time, and improved himself considerably. Upon his return to Flanders, he fixed his abode at Brussels: he was made painter to Ferdinand and Isabella, archduke and duchess, and became attached to the house of the cardinal Infant of Spain. The grand compositions of battles and huntings, which he executed for the king of Spain, and the arch-duke Leopold William, deserve the highest commendation and besides hunting-pieces, he painted kitchens, &c. and gave dignity to subjects that seemed incapable of it; but his works, sir Joshua Reynolds observes, "from their subjects, their size, and we may add, their being so common, seem to be better suited to a hall or ante-room, than any other place." He died in 1657. Rubens used to co-operate with this painter, and took a pleasure in assisting him, when his pictures required large figures. Snyders has engraved a book of animals of sixteen leaves, great and small. ' SOANEN (JOHN), son of Matthew Soanen, attorney to the presidial of Riom in Auvergne, and Gilberte Sirmond, niece of the learned Jesuit James Sirmond, was born January 6, 1647, at Riom, and entered the congregation of the Oratory at Paris, 1661, where he chose father Quesnel for his confessor. On quitting that establishment, he taught ethics and rhetoric in several provincial towns, and devoted himself afterwards to the pulpit, for which he had great talents. Having preached at Lyons, Orleans, and Paris, with applause, he was invited to court, preached there during Lent in 1686 and 1688, and being appointed bishop of Senez soon after, acquired great veneration in his diocese by his regular conduct, charity to the poor, and abstemious life. At length, having appealed from the bull Unigenitus to a future council, and refused to listen to any terms of accommodation on the subject, he published a "Pastoral Instruction," giving an account to his diocesans of his conduct respecting the bull. This "Instruction" gave great offence, and occasioned the fa mous council of Embrun held 1727, in which M. de Ten 1 Argenville, vol. III.-Pilkington.-Sir J. Reynolds's works. 翼 cin procured it to be condemned as rash, scandalous, &c. and M. the bishop of Senez to be suspended from all episcopal jurisdiction, and all sacerdotal functions. After this council M. Soanen was banished to la Chaise Dieu, where he died, December 25, 1740, leaving "Pastoral Instructions," "Mandates," and "Letters." The "Letters" have been printed with his Life, 6 vols. 4to. or 8 vols. 12mo.; his "Sermons," 1767, 2 vols. 12mo.1 He SOCINUS (LELIUS), a man of great learning and abilities, was the third son of Marianus Socinus, an eminent civilian at Bologna, and has by some been reckoned the founder of the Socinian sect, as having been in reality the author of all those principles and opinions, which Faustus Socinus afterwards propagated with more boldness. was born at Sienna in 1525, and designed by his father for the study of the civil law. With this he combined the perusal of the scriptures; thinking that the foundations of the civil law must necessarily be laid in the word of God, ' and therefore would be deduced in the best manner from it. To qualify himself for this inquiry, he studied the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabie tongues. What light he derived from this respecting the civil law is not known, but he is said to have soon discovered, that the church of Rome taught many things plainly contrary to scripture. About 1546 he became a member of a secret society, consisting of about forty persons, who held their meetings, at different times, in the territory of Venice, and particularly at Vicenza, in which they deliberated concerning a general reformation of the received systems of religion, and particularly endeavoured to establish the doctrines afterwards publicly adopted by the Socinians; but being discovered, and some of them punished, they dispersed into other countries; and our Socinus, in 1547, began his travels, and spent four years in France, England, the Netherlands, Germany, and Poland; and then settled at Zurich. contracted a familiarity, and even an intimacy, with the learned wherever he went; and Calvin, Melancthon, Bullinger, Beza, and others of the same class, were amongst the number of his friends. But having soon discovered, by the doubts he proposed to them, that he had adopted sentiments the most obnoxious to these reformers, he became an object of suspicion; and Calvin, in particular, 1 Dict. Hist. He wrote to him an admonitory letter, of which the following is a part: "Don't expect," says he, "that I should answer all your preposterous questions. If you chuse to soar amidst such lofty speculations, suffer me, an humble disciple of Jesus Christ, to meditate upon such things as conduce to my edification; as indeed I shall endeavour by my silence to prevent your being troublesome to me hereafter. In the mean time, I cannot but lament, that you should continue to employ those excellent talents with which God has blessed you, not only to no purpose, but to a very bad one. Let me beg of you seriously, as I have often done, to correct in yourself this love of inquiry, which may bring you into trouble." It would appear that Socinus took this advice in part, as he continued to live among these orthodox divines for a considerable time, without molestation. He found means, however, to communicate his notions to such as were disposed to receive them, and even lectured to Italians, who wandered up and down in Germany and Poland. He also sent writings to his relations, who lived at Sienna. He took a journey into Poland about 1558; and obtained from the king some letters of recommendation to the doge of Venice and the duke of Florence, that he might be safe at Venice, while his affairs required his residence there. He afterwards returned to Switzerland, and died at Zurich in 1562, in his thirty-seventh year. Being naturally timorous and irresolute, he professed to die in the communion of the reformed church, but certainly had contributed much to the foundation of the sect called from his, or his nephew's name, for he collected the materials that Faustus afterwards digested and employed with such dexterity and success. He secretly and imperceptibly excited doubts and scruples in the minds of many, concerning several doctrines generally received among Christians, and, by several arguments against the divinity of Christ, which he left behind him in writing, he so far seduced, even after his death, the Arians in Poland, that they embraced the communion and sentiments of those who looked upon Christ as a mere man, created immediately, like Adam, by God himself. There are few writings of Lælius extant, and of those that bear his name, some undoubtedly belong to others.' VOL. XXVIII. 1 Dupin.-Gen. Dict.-Mosheim, N SOCINUS (FAUSTUS), nephew of the preceding, and commonly esteemed the head of the sect of Socinians, was born at Sienna in 1539. He is supposed to have studied little in his youth, and to have acquired but a moderate share of classical learning and the civil law. He was scarcely twenty when his uncle died at Zurich, and Faustus immediately set out from Lyons, where he then happened to be, to take possession of all his papers. Lælius had conceived great hopes of his nephew, imparted to him the whole of his opinions; and used to say that what he had inculcated but faintly and obscurely to the world at large, would be divulged in a more strong and perspicuous manner by Faustus. But, although this was ultimately the case, Faustus did not begin to propagate his uncle's principles immediately upon his return to Italy from Zurich; but suffered himself to be diverted, by large promises of favour and honourable employments already bestowed upon him, to the court of Francis de Medicis, grand duke of Tuscany. Here he spent twelve years, and had almost forgot his uncle's doctrines and papers, for which some have censured him as taking upon him the character of a reformer, without due preparation of study: while his followers have endeavoured to display it as an advantage that he studied the world, rather than scholastic learning. In 1574, he left the court of Florence, and went into Germany; whence he could never be prevailed with to return, though frequently importuned by letters and messengers from the grand duke himself. He studied divinity at Basil for three years; and now began to propagate his uncle's principles, but with considerable alterations and additions of his own. About that time the churches of Transylvania were disturbed by the doctrine of Francis. David, concerning the honours and the power of the son of God. Blandrata, a man of great authority in those churches and at court, sent for Socinus from Basil, as a man very well qualified to compose these differences, and procured him to be lodged in the same house with Francis David, that he might have a better opportunity of drawing him from his errors. David, however, would not be convinced, but remained obstinate and determined to propagate his errors; on which he was cast into prison by order of the prince, where he died soon after. This left an imputation upon Socinus, as if he had been the contriver of his imprisonment, and the occasion of his death; which, says Le Clerc, if it be true (though he endeavoured to deny it), should moderate the indignation of his followers against Calvin in the case of Servetus, for nothing can be said against that reformer, which will not bear as hard upon their own patriarch. In 1579, Socinus retired into Poland, and desired to be admitted into the communion of the Unitarians, or United Brethren; but was refused, on account of his doctrines, to which they did not assent. Afterwards, he wrote a book against James Palæologus; of which complaint was made to Stephen, then king of Poland, as containing seditious opinions; yet this seems without foundation, for Socinus was such a friend to absolute submission, that he even condemned with severity the resistance of the people of the Netherlands against the tyranny of Spain. He found it, however, expedient to leave Cracow, after he had been there four years; and to take sanctuary in the house of a Polish lord, with whom he lived some years; and married his daughter with his consent. In this retreat he wrote many books, which raised innumerable enemies against him. He lost his wife in 1587, at which he was inconsolable for many months; and was, about the same time, deprived, by the death of the duke of Tuscany, of a noble pension, which had been settled on him by the generosity that prince. In 1598, he returned again to Cracow, where he became so obnoxious, that the scholars of that place. raised a mob of the lower order, who broke into his house, dragged him into the streets, and were with difficulty prevented from murdering him. They plundered his house, however, and burnt some manuscripts which he particularly lamented, and said he would have redeemed at the price of his blood. To avoid these dangers for the future, he retired to the house of a Polish gentleman, at a village about nine miles distant from Cracow; where he spent the remainder of his life, and died in 1604, aged sixtyfive. His sect did not die with him; but the sentiments of the modern Socinians are widely different from those of their founder, who approached to a degree of orthodoxy nowhere now to be found among them. To enter, however, upon all the varieties of their opinions would occupy a much larger space than is consistent with the plan of this work. Yet all those varieties, and all the shapes and forms. on which the modern Socinians, or Unitarians, as they affect |