A sect so called from Faustus Socinus, who died in Poland, in 1604. There were two who bore the name of Socinus, -- uncle and nephew, -- and both disseminated the same doctrine; but it is the nephew who is generally considered as the founder of this sect. They maintain that Jesus Christ was a mere man, who had no existence before he was conceived by the Virgin Mary; that the Holy Ghost is no distinct person; but that the Father is truly and properly God. They own that the name of God is given, in the holy Scriptures, to Jesus Christ, but contend that it is only a deputed title, which, however, invests him with a great authority over all created beings. They deny the doctrines of satisfaction and imputed righteousness, and say that Christ only preached the truth to mankind, set before them, in himself, an example of heroic virtue, and sealed his doctrines with his blood. Original sin, and absolute predestination, they esteem scholastic chimeras. Some of them likewise maintain the sleep of the soul, which, they say, becomes insensible at death, and is raised again, with the body, at the resurrection, when the good shall be established in the possession of eternal felicity, while the wicked shall be consigned to a fire that will not torment them eternally, but for a certain duration, proportioned to their demerits. (See Acts 2:22; 17:31.1 Tim.2:5.)