Giorgio Biandrata
Giorgio Biandrata or Blandrata (1515 – 5 May 1588) was an Italian-born Transylvanian physician and polemicist, who came from the De Biandrate family, powerful from the early part of the 13th century.[1] He was a Unitarian.
Biandrata was born in
He attended Jane Stafford, English wife of Count Celso Massimiliano Martinengo, preacher of the Italian church at Geneva, and fostered anti-trinitarian opinions in that church. In 1558 he found it expedient to move to Poland, where he became a leader of the heretical party at the synods of Pińczów (1558) and Książ Wielkopolski (1560 and 1562). His point was the suppression of extremes of opinion, on the basis of a confession literally drawn from Scripture.[1]
He obtained the position of
In 1563 Biandrata transferred his services to the Transylvanian court of John Sigismund Zápolya, where the daughters of his patroness were married to ruling princes. He revisited Poland (1576) in the train of Stephen Báthory, whose tolerance permitted the propagation of heresies; and when (1579) Christopher Báthory introduced the Jesuits into Transylvania, Biandrata found means of conciliating them.[1]
Throughout his career he was accompanied by his two brothers, Ludovico and Alphonso, the former being canon of Saluzzo. In Transylvania, Biandrata co-operated with
To influence David, Biandrata sent for
Having amassed a fortune, Biandrata returned to the communion of
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i public domain: Gordon, Alexander (1911). "Blandrata, Giorgio". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 40–41. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- Malacarne, Commentario delle Opere e delle Vicende di G. Biandrata (Padova, 1814);
- Robert Wallace, Anti-trinitarian Biography, vol. ii (1850).