Celsus Minus

Celsus Minus of Sienna, was one of those Italians, who, about the middle of the sixteenth century, embarked with ardour in the cause of the Reformation; but whether he joined the Antitrinitarian party has not been positively ascertained. The general tendency of his mind was decidedly liberal; and Bock seems half disposed to impugn his orthodoxy. "I willingly abstain from many conjectures," says that writer, "that I may not give occasion to others for charging me with having done an injury to orthodox and innocent men. But Minus Celsus, of Sienna, has sometimes appeared to me to have been either a member of the society of Vicenza, or favourably inclined towards those who were members." Little is known of his personal history; and for a long time it was thought, that Minus Celsus was an assumed name of Castalio, or of Laelius or Faustus Socinus. Schelhorn, however, has shewn, in a distinct treatise on the subject, that Minus Celsus was the real name of the author of the work, entitled, "In Hsereticis coercendis quatenus progredi liceat; Mini Celsi Senensis Disputatio: ubi nominatim eos ultimo Supplicio affici non debere apert£ demonstratur. Christling. Anno M.D.LXXVII." 8vo. This learned writer thinks, that the faith of Minus Celsus in the Romish doctrines was first shaken by Ochinus and Aönius Paleärius. Of the former of these an account has been given in the body of this work (Art. 12); the latter was Professor of Rhetoric and Belles-lettres, first at Sienna, and afterwards at Lucca; and was burnt on a charge of heresy at Rome, A. D. 1566.

Minus Celsus, when somewhat advanced in life, found it necessary, as he valued his own safety, to leave Italy, and seek an asylum in some foreign land. This was in the year 1569, when Pope Pius V., a man of ferocious disposition, by his cruel treatment of Peter Carnesecchi and others, had struck terror into the minds of many, who were favourable to the principles of the Reformation. In that year Minus Celsus sought a refuge for his old age in the Rhaetian Alps, where the fame of his erudition had preceded him, and where he was able to worship God without molestation, according to the dictates of his own conscience. This we lear n from the Dedication to Sir Francis Walsingbam of an edition of the New Testament, in Latin and French, by Minus Celsus, published at Basle in 1572. His stay among the Grisons was short, certainly not exceeding three years; for in 1572, we find him at Basle, obtaining a livelihood as a corrector of the press, in the office of Peter Perna. Towards the close of the Dedication to his edition of the New Testament, he expresses a hope, that he may accomplish some greater work, under the roof of Sir Francis Walsingham, then on a mission to the court of France; and thus emulate the fame of other excellent men, who were so fortunate as to share the patronage of that distinguished individual. Whether this hope was realized, and Minus Celsus ever became an inmate in the family of Sir F. Walsingham, Schelhorn professes his inability to determine. He thinks it not improbable that death suddenly overtook him, and prevented him from accomplishing the journey to Paris, and realizing there the plans which he had formed.

The treatise on the punishment of Heretics professes to have been published at Chritttingen; but Schelhorn conjectures, from the character of the types, that it really issued from the office of Peter Perna at Basle, I where Minus Celsus was employed as a corrector of the press. In tins work the question is treated with great solidity and learning. The author was led to a discussion of the subject, in consequence of finding it disputed among Protestants, when he passed through the Grison territory in 1569. "In the work," says Dr. M'Crie, "he points out the distinction between the kingdom of Christ and secular kingdoms, examines the doctrine of Scripture on the subject, produces testimonies from the fathers and reformers in favour of the opinion which he maintains, and shews that it is not inconsistent with the exercise of civil authority in reforming and supporting religion. His reasoning is not confined to capital punishment." The work was originally written in Italian, as the author himself states, and was intended to have been published in that language. But the cares and difficulties which multiplied around him, in his state of exile, induced him not only to defer its publication, but almost to lay it aside, when, on his arrival at Basle, other works on the same subject met his eye, and induced him to take it up again. There, in the house of Peter Perna, he made a Latin translation of it ;^f and there too, while employed upon that translation, or a little later, and before he could fulfil his engagement with Sir F. Walsingham, Schelhorn supposes that he died, and left his work, before it had received the last polish, in the hands of Perna."

A second edition of this celebrated treatise afterwards appeared| under the following title. "Mini Celsi, Senensis, De Hscreticis capitali Supplicio non afficiendis. Adjuncts e sunt ejusdem Argument! Theodori Bezse et Andres e Duditii Kpistoloe duoe contrariss: cum Indice satis copioso et accurate. MDLXXXEHL" 8vo. The volume commences with a Dedicatory Epistle from "Valens Titus Ligius" to "Christcphorus Cnipius Saxo," dated "ex meo pistrino Lemnico. Cal. iiix.br. MDXVIC," and occupies 14 pages. Then followB a " Prooemium," extending over 15 pages more. The work is divided into four sections, and occupies 460 pages; but these are numbered as 230, the number being given only in every alternate page. At the close of the volume, there are two letters of Beza and Duditius, extending from p. 231 to p. 260; a list of the names of authors cited; an Index of passages of Scripture explained; a General Index; and a list of Errata.

The two editions, a copy of each of which the present writer has now lying before him, have been collated by a correspondent of the Monthly Repository, (R. S.—Mon. Rep. 1819, p. 741,) who says, "the body of the work, as far as the signature h, or p. 224, is identically the same in both, having the same typographical errata. The only part of the original work that appears to have been actually reprinted is that comprised in pp. 224—230."

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