Palaeologus was born at the
Genoese colony on
Chios, one of the
Aegean Islands near the coast of
Anatolia, of a Greek father and an Italian mother. Chios had been, since 1347, ruled by the
Republic of Genoa and by the 16th century it was a fief of the Giustiniani family. The young man attached himself to
Vincenzo Giustiniani (later
Master General of the Dominican Order) and entered into the
Dominican Order. He was educated in Dominican schools at Genoa and Ferrara, and later at the
University of Bologna. He adopted the name "Jacob Palaeologus" and claimed kinship with the former
Palaiologos emperors of
Byzantium. Although in later life he repeatedly defended this claim, no independent sources survive that support it. ); condemned Palaeologus to death in absentia, and remained his lifelong enemy By 1554, Palaeologus was back east in the
Dominican convent of St Peter in
Pera, the Latin Christian quarter of
Constantinople, and it was here that he developed a lifelong adherence to antitrinitarian teachings of
Michael Servetus, and composed a defence of Servetus' doctrines against their denunciation by
John Calvin; in consequence of which Servetus had been condemned to death in
Geneva in 1553. In 1556 Palaeologus returned to Chios and actively supported the secular Genoese commissioners and the agents of the
Holy Roman Emperor against the authority of the
bishop of Chios; this led to his being denounced to the
Inquisition and arrested in Genoa in 1557. In 1558, he escaped to Constantinople, but was rearrested in Ragusa (
Dubrovnik) and brought to the prison of the Roman Inquisition under the personal investigation of the Grand Inquisitor, Michele Ghislieri (a fellow Dominican friar, later
Pope Pius V). For the rest of his life, Palaeologus maintained a fierce opposition to the Inquisition, and a particular enmity for Ghislieri. At the death of
Pope Paul IV in 1559, the Roman mob looted buildings and burned records. Palaeologus escaped from prison when a mob stormed the headquarters of the Roman Inquisition and released inmates. Although evidence against him had been destroyed, he was subsequently
tried in absentia by a Roman Inquisition tribunal, convicted, sentenced to death in 1561, and burned in
effigy. Palaeologus escaped initially to France, where, in 1562, he unsuccessfully petitioned Cardinal
Ippolito d'Este, the papal legate, to have the Inquisition heresy conviction overturned. Then later in 1562, realising that he was also not safe or welcome among Reformed Protestants because of his virulent denunciations of Calvinism, he offered help to
Andreas Dudith,
Bishop of Knin and the imperial representative at the
Council of Trent. Palaeologus advised Dudith in the presentation to the Council of the imperial arguments for permitting
communion under both kinds; and in exchange Dudith attempted to have Palaeologus's heresy conviction overturned by the
Ecumenical Council, stirring up in the process a major disruption to the Council's proceedings. Eventually in 1563, Palaeologus was granted imperial asylum in
Prague; and when the new Emperor
Maximilian II succeeded in 1564, Palaeologus advanced in the imperial favour. Following the example of his patron Dudith, Palaeologus renounced his religious vows, marrying the daughter of a leading Prague reformer. In 1569, Palaeologus was proposed to the emperor as the
Utraquist candidate to the office of Archbishop of Prague. This was however blocked by Ghislieri, his sworn enemy, who was now pope; and who eventually had Palaeologus expelled from the imperial dominions to Poland in 1571, where he was reunited in
Kraków with Dudith, who was now the imperial representative to the Kingdom of Poland. Palaeologus was openly advancing antitrinitarian views but became embroiled in a bitter controversy with
Gregory Paul of Brzeziny and the
Ecclesia Minor over the Polish antitrinitarians' condemnation of Christian service in the military. Having acquired enemies in Catholic Rome, Calvinist Geneva, and Anti-Trinitarian
Raków in Lesser Poland; Palaeologus sought in 1573 a more congenial home in the
Unitarian Church of Transylvania, whose
Unitarian status had been established under the rule of Prince
John II Sigismund Zápolya. Bishop
Ferenc Dávid had corresponded with him since 1570 and sought his advice. By 1573 this was a well-worn path for Italian reformers and radicals; already taken, amongst many others by
Giorgio Biandrata and
Francesco Stancaro, and Paleologus found a receptive audience for his teachings. The aristocratic households of
Hungary,
Principality of Transylvania and
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth prized Italian culture and language, and most had sent their sons to Italian universities. Within their own extensive feudal estates they exercised substantial religious freedom – beyond the reach of Catholic bishops, Reformed city councils or the Inquisition – and many were sympathetic to radical Protestant ideas. Numbers of Italian religious exiles found ready employment in these places as physicians, chaplains, tutors, secretaries, and political agents. During 1573, Palaeologus undertook an extended trip to Constantinople and Chios (which had been captured by the Ottoman Empire from the Genoese Republic in 1566) – intended in part to impress Maximilian with his value and contacts – and then became
Rector of the
Unitarian college at Kolozsvár (
Cluj) and the leading theoretician of nonadorantism, the strain of radical Protestantism that denied the validity of addressing Jesus in prayer. Following Zápolya's death in 1571, the succession to the Principality of Transylvania had been disputed. Palaeologus supported
Gaspar Bekes, the pro-imperial and antitrinitarian candidate, against
Stephen Báthory, the Catholic candidate. Following two failed uprisings, Bekes conceded defeat in 1575 and Palaeologus moved to Kraków where he promoted the cause of Maximilian, against that of
Stephen Báthory in the
1576 Royal election in Poland; and then settling in
Moravia. Meanwhile, Dávid was accused of religious innovation and deposed as leader of the Transylvanian Unitarian Church for his nonadorant practices. He died in prison in 1579. Palaeologus wrote polemical works supporting Dávid and attacking
Fausto Sozzini for siding against Dávid. Maximilan II died in 1576, and the new emperor
Rudolph II was much less sympathetic, becoming convinced that Palaeologus was spying for the Ottoman Empire and possibly Poland too. Palaeologus was arrested by the
Bishop of Olomouc in December 1581. Although the spying accusations could not be substantiated, a large body of heretical writings was found with him and he was extradited to Rome in May 1582. On February 19, 1583, Palaeologus was taken to be
burned at the stake but
abjured at the sight of a Portuguese Marani being burnt alive and was permitted to return to his cell. The
College of Cardinals argued for his death, but
Pope Gregory XIII insisted that if Palaeologus would denounce his former antitrinitarian opinions then he would be more useful alive. Although Palaeologus was now reconciled with the Catholic Church, he still refused to cooperate with Gregory's plan and was beheaded on March 23, 1585. A wide variety of radical groups emerged from the 16th century
Reformation, commonly characterised by • a rejection of clerical authority • a rejection of the
sacraments as essential instruments of God's
Grace • a rejection of the orthodox formulations of the
Trinity These groups were commonly dismissed by their opponents as
Anabaptists (although by no means all practiced
believer's baptism), a term that carried an implication of low social standing, limited education, excessive religious behaviour and the rejection of social and gender norms. Palaeologus conformed to none of these stereotypes. His command of biblical texts was at least the equal of that of the best of his antagonists, his knowledge of
patristics probably better than any. He was formidably skilled in academic debate and wrote eloquently in high Latin style. Moreover, he was a strong critic of all forms of social subversion; and with his education from the University of Bologna, he was readily at ease in the Italian-speaking and Italian-educated aristocratic houses of central and eastern Europe. Even amongst those who did not share his vision of radical Christianity there were many, like Giustiniani and Dudith, who sympathised with his pleas for toleration; and his eloquent defence of free religious expression and debate in a Europe increasingly policed into tight bounds of conformity on one side or another. With the aid of his many contacts and correspondents, he appeared able to travel at will across the boundaries dividing Catholic from Reformed, and Christian from Turk. All of which made him a dangerous man, and explains the extensive, determined and persistent efforts of his opponents to have him silenced. ==Works==