A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists/Acosta, Uriel

Layout 2

Acosta, Uriel, Jewish writer. B. 1591. Ed. Oporto. Acosta s family had, under pressure, embraced Christianity, and Uriel became Treasurer of an ecclesiastical college. Familiarity with the life and teaching of the Church drove him back to Jewish monotheism, and he fled to Holland. The continuance of his studies led him on to Deism, and he was so bitterly persecuted by both Jews and Christians that he took his life. His experience of orthodox charity is pathetically recorded in his autobiography, Exemplar Humana Vitæ D. Apr., 1647.