John Tillotson

 

From OUR UNITARIAN HERITAGE, 1925 by Earl Morse Wilbur

'At least four members of the distinguished Socinian family Crellius visited England, of whom Paul studied at Cambridge, while Samuel in repeated visits formed an intimate friendship with the Earl of Shaftesbury, and with Archbishop Tillotson, who publicly spoke in high appreciation of the Socinians', (etc).     (page 297)

 

'It was Firmin’s especial services to the cause of Unitarianism, however, that bring him into this history. Although he attended Bidle’s services as long as they lasted, he never withdrew from the Church of England, and until his death in 1697 he maintained with Archbishop Tillotson and with most of the prominent clergy an intimate friendship, which was never broken despite his known difference from them in matters of belief.'   (Etc.)     (page 310)

 

Perhaps the most widespread of these various Socinian influences was shown in the direction of broad toleration of difference of opinion in religion, and in the tendency to reduce the essentials of Christianity to the very fewest and most important things — a tendency which presently came to be known as Latitudinarianism. Such a principle had already been urged in Bidle’s time, in an English translation of Aconzio’s Stratagems of Satan which would have left the door of the Church so wide that men of all views might enter it.   ...   Many who still believed in some sort of Trinity were far from sure they believed in all the statements of this Creed, and every use of it gave their consciences a twinge. Even Archbishop Tillotson said, “I wish we were well rid of it.”     (page 314)

Boston : Beacon Press 1925.

 

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