Simonius Simon

Simonius Simon , a Philosopher and Physician, and one of the most eminent men of his time, was born at Lucca, and left his native country, to join the Reformed Church at Geneva. Through the officious zeal of Beza and other Genevese Divines, he fell under ecclesiastical censure, and suffered imprisonment for holding Antitrinitarian opinions. He was admitted to a Professorship of Philosophy in the University of Leipzic ; and for some time enjoyed the patronage and confidence of Augustus, Elector of Saxony. But his colleagues, through bigotry or envy, found means of bringing against him new accusations of heresy, and obliged him to resign his situation. As he refused to affix his name to The Formula of Concord, to which all Ministers and Tutors of Schools and Colleges were compelled by the Elector to subscribe, he was under the necessity of leaving the Electorate ; and, going first to Vienna, and afterwards into Poland, he practised as a Physician. But he was fickle in his religious opinions, and outwardly conformed to the Catholic Church in Poland, in order that he might get appointed one of the Physicians to the King, although, for a time at least, he was in reality a Unitarian. The pamphlet of Squarcialupus, entitled "Simonis Simonii Lucensis, primum Romani, tum Calviniani, deinde Lutherani, denuo Romani, semper autem Athei, summa Religio," having often been referred to under the abridged title, "Simonis Religio," for a long time greatly puzzled the bibliographers, and was regarded by many as the work of Simonius himself. But it was conjectured by Bayle, and has since been well ascertained, that it was written by Squarcialupus, the implacable adversary of Simonius ; and that its principal object was to bring a rival Physician into disrepute, by exposing his repeated tergiversation on the subject of religion. The initials D. M. S. P. given in the title-page, as those of the author, are probably intended to represent the words D[ominus] M[arcellus] S[quarcialupus] P[lumbinensis].

Besides two pamphlets, written in the course of this controversy, and several medical treatises, Simonius published a work, "De Sensuum Instrumentis," and another, "De vera Nobilitate," as well as a Book of Commentaries "in Ethica Aristotelis ad Nicomachum," "Aristotelis Analyticorum priorum Libri duo," " Quaestionum Dialecticarum Fragmentum," &c.

Many harsh and untrue things have been said of this learned, but unstable man, on no better authority than the bitter invectives of Squarcialupus, in whom the spirit of revenge, unmitigated by any redeeming quality, seems to have reached its utmost limit, during his controversy with Simonius.