Religious movement founded by the Italian Laelius Socinus (1525–62) and his nephew Faustus Socinus (1539–1603). It stood for the use of reason in theological matters and the downsizing of dogma, denying central orthodox Christian tenets such as the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, original sin, and predestination. It took root in Poland, but in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the word was widely used in polemical writings as a pejorative term for Latitudinarians and deists.