Toland, John

Toland, John one of the founders of modern deism, was born Nov. 30, 1669 or 1670, in the most northern isthmus of Ireland. His Christian-name was Janus Junius, but at school his master ordered him to be called John, which name he retained ever after. From the school at Redcastle, near Londonderry, he went, in 1687, to the College of Glasgow, and after three years stay there visited the University of Edinburgh, where he was made A.M. in June, 1690. He afterwards went to the University of Leyden, where he was generously supported by, some eminent Dissenters in England. After a residence there of two years, he returned to England, and went to Oxford, which place he left in 1695, and went to London, whence he returned to Ireland in 1697. But so strong was the feeling aroused by his deistic notions and his own imprudent conduct that he soon returned to London. He accompanied the earl of Macclesfield to Hanover in 1701, and also made an excursion to Berlin, at which latter place he remained for some time, and then returned to England. In the spring of 1707 he again visited Germany, Holland, etc., reaching England in 1710. He died at Putney, near London, March 11, 1722. Of his many treatises we notice, Christianity not Mysterious (Lond 1 1696, 8vo ) which elicited at least fifty-four replies: — An Apology for Mr. Toland (ibid. 1697): —Amyntor, or a Defence of Milton's Life, etc. (1699, 8vo); this attack upon the canon of the New Test. was answered by Samuel Clark, Jeremiah Jones, Stephen Nye, and John Richardson, Socinianism Truly Stated (1705): —Dissertationes duce: Adeisidemon et Origines Judaicae (1709, 8vo): —Nazarenus (ibid. 1718, 8vo): —History of the Druids (Montrose, 1814, 8vo), etc. See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Contemp. Rev. June, 1868.