Jacob Palaeologus

Who is Jacob Palaeologus?

Jacob Palaeologus, born Giacomo da Chio was a former Dominican friar who became an anti-Trinitarian. An indefegatible 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 within Ottoman territories; while formulating and propagating a radically heterodox version of Christianity, in which Jesus Christ was not to be invoked in worship, and where purported irreconcileable differences between Christianity, Islam and Judaism were rejected as spurious fabrications. Continually pursued by his many enemies, and 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 loss of imperial favour led to his being surrendered to the Roman Inquisition and executed.