Alciati, Giovanni Paolo

Alciati, Giovanni Paolo, an Italian theological disputant, lived near the middle of the 16th century. He was a native of Piedmont, and abjured Catholicism in order to unite with the Protestant Church. He set forth the new doctrines upon the mystery of the Trinity, and formed a new party not less odious to the Protestants than to the Catholics. Alciati commenced his innovations at Geneva in concert with a physician named Blandrata and an advocate named Gribaud, with whom Valentine Gentilis associated himself. Their efforts here met with so much opposition that they retired to Poland, where Blandrata and Alciati scattered their heresies with some success. From Poland they intended to cross into Moravia; but Alciati retired to Dantzic, where he died in the Socinian faith, and did not, as some have believed, become a Turk. He published Letters to Gregorio Paoli (1564). See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.