page_title: Jacob Palaeologus
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob Palaeologus / Works
caption_attribution_description: Miguel Servet, Miguel de Villanueva (1511 - 1553) engraving
context_page_description: Jacob Palaeologus or Giacomo da Chio was a Dominican friar who renounced his religious vows and became an antitrinitarian theologian. An indefatigable polemicist against both Calvinism and Papal Power, Palaeologus cultivated a wide range of high-placed contacts and correspondents in the imperial, royal, and aristocratic households in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire; while formulating and propagating a radically heterodox version of Christianity, in which Jesus Christ was not to be invoked in worship, and where purported irreconcilable differences between Christianity, Islam, and Judaism were rejected as spurious fabrications. He was continually pursued by his many enemies, repeatedly escaping through his many covert supporters.
  Palaeologus played an active role in the high politics of European religion and diplomacy over a period of twenty years before he lost imperial favour; and having been extradited to the Papal States, was executed for heresy by the Roman Inquisition.
context_section_description: Until 1571, Palaeologus claimed to be an Erasmian humanist, critical of the excesses of Papal Authority and of the Inquisition and sympathetic to some of the ideas of the Reformers, but still a faithful Catholic. In this his public pose was similar to that of his patron, Dudith; and also to that of Dudith's own former patron, Cardinal Reginald Pole. All scholars agree, however, that Palaeologus' radical views in his subsequent published work are more representative of his earlier private opinions; and that he may well have become covertly convinced by antitrinitarian arguments as early as his stay in Pera in 1554–1555. It would accordingly have been unwise for him to publish much of his true opinions until moving to the Principality of Transylvania. However, following Zápolya's death in 1571, permission for Palaeologus, a foreigner, to print antitrinitarian works in the Principality of Transylvania was difficult to obtain; and most of his works of this period circulated in manuscript copies made by his students. From 1573 Dávid attempted to circumvent increasing restrictions on printing in the Principality of Transylvania by seeking to establish a printing press for radical Protestant works, dispatching Adam Neuser to Istanbul with funds for the project;  and it is possible that Palaeologus' trip to Istanbul that year may have been partly related to this abortive project, as Palaeologus spent several days with Neuser there.
  It was only after 1578 that Symon Budny, who shared both Palaeologus' nonadorantist theology and his criticisms of the pacifism of the Polish Ecclesia Minor, established a printing press in Belarus and many of Palaeologus' works, often in anonymous editions, were printed there from 1580 onwards.
  Contra Calvinum pro Serveto
  On Palaeologus' arrest, a large body of theological writings, by him and others, fell into the hands of the Roman Inquisition. Some of these works are not known from the Unitarian archives preserved in Cluj and Kraków; and selected extracts were published by the Vatican Library in the late 19th century. They propose a defence of Michael Servetus, and are believed to date from the 1550s.
  De peccato originis
  De providentia
  Two treatises written around 1569 in the form of open letters to Pope Pius V (Ghislieri); but intended for the Emperor Maximilian II. They criticise Calvinist teachings on predestination and original sin, also accusing the Inquisition of groundless persecution in its accusations and judgements against Palaeologus.
  Adversus proscriptionem Elisabethae Reginae Angliae,  is a comprehensive scholarly refutation of the bull Regnans in Excelsis by which Pius V had excommunicated Elizabeth I of England in 1570.
  De discriminate Veteris et Novi Testamentum (1572), is Palaeologus' argument supporting the absolute continuity and consistency of the Old and New Testaments. Key to this is his rejection of the standard Christian identification of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, with Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God. Palaeologus expressed this as a formula of faith: "God is one and Jesus is the Anointed" a deliberate reworking of the Islamic shahada formula. For Palaeologus, the incarnation is a fabrication of the Church, unfounded and unscriptural. Jesus in his earthly ministry had been only and completely the true Messiah of Israel, and as such fulfilled in all respects the messianic prophecies of the Mosaic Law; which accordingly remains (for the Jewish people at least) in full force; only requiring their recognition of Jesus as Messiah. The resurrected Jesus was now with Almighty God, and would return as a universal deliverer to preside over the rule of the saints. Palaeologus appeared to believe that the historic coming of the Jesus as Messiah necessarily abrogated the sacrificial priesthood of the Old Testament; nevertheless his understanding of the historic Jesus entirely as a Jewish figure led to accusations of Judaizing from his opponents.
  De Tribus gentibus (1572), sets out Palaeologus' views on Judaism, Christianity and Islam; presenting three religious tribes who ea
caption: Michael Servetus, executed in Geneva in 1553, his antitrinitarian writings were the formative influence of Palaeologus' theology
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