Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Theology of John Tillotson (1630-1694) and Latitudinarianism in England Joo, Euidon Award date: 2019 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 27. Sep. 2021 Bangor University Prifysgol Bangor The Theology of John Tillotson (1630-1694) and Latitudinarianism in England Euidon Joo The Theology of John Tillotson (1630-1694) and Latitudinarianism in England Abstract Early academic writings on John Tillotson (1630-1694), a clergyman of the Church of England, and Archbishop of Canterbury, tended to argue that he was a rationalist who undermined the influence of traditional religious views and that Tillotson shared his secularising ideas with a group of clergy called Latitudinarians. Some more recent historians, on the other hand, have described him as a defender of orthodox Protestantism. The present study was stimulated by seeing these divergent opinions about Tillotson, so one of the main questions is the relationship between reason and religion in Tillotson’s theology. What did Tillotson mean by the word ‘reason’? How important was the role of reason in his theology? This thesis seeks to shed a new light on Tillotson’s theology through a deep analysis of his sermons. It will be shown that though Tillotson employed his own ‘rational’ methodology, his ‘rational’ strategy was used to defend supernatural elements of traditional Christianity. Thus, one of the arguments of this study is that it may be misleading to see Tillotson’s rationalism as undermining the mysterious aspects of revealed religion, which were beyond human comprehension. More importantly, however, this study shows that Tillotson endeavoured to promote the practice of Christian love, rather than a ‘rational’ defence of traditional doctrines. Tillotson’s stress on behaviour was revealed in his theology in general. The practice of charity was central in constructing his soteriology and ecclesiology: both centred on encouraging benevolent virtue and condemning religious persecution, and crucially shaped attitudes to Catholics and Protestant Dissenters. Tillotson’s political theology also served these ends: a belief in providential and de facto authority supported insistence on a public peace which could promote charity and moral reform, but concern that Catholicism undermined these objectives permitted some forms of resistance to government in particular circumstances. This study argues that Tillotson’s charity-based politics and ecclesiology, which have received little scholarly attention, was an important part of his theology and it also may have been a common feature shared by his fellow Latitudinarian clergy. Tillotson and Latitudinarians, by promoting virtuous and tolerant Christian behaviour, may have contributed to making British society more polite and benevolent, and have contributed to the culture and religion of the eighteenth century in under-appreciated ways. Declaration Yr wyf drwy hyn yn datgan mai canlyniad fy ymchwil fy hun yw’r thesis hwn, ac eithrio lle nodir yn wahanol. Caiff ffynonellau eraill eu cydnabod gan droednodiadau yn rhoi cyfeiriadau eglur. Nid yw sylwedd y gwaith hwn wedi cael ei dderbyn o’r blaen ar gyfer unrhyw radd, ac nid yw’n cael ei gyflwyno ar yr un pryd mewn ymgeisiaeth am unrhyw radd oni bai ei fod, fel y cytunwyd gan y Brifysgol, am gymwysterau deuol cymeradwy. I hereby declare that this thesis is the results of my own investigations, except where otherwise stated. All other sources are acknowledged by bibliographic references. This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree unless, as agreed by the University, for approved dual awards. Contents Introduction – p. 1. Chapter 1: Reason – p. 31. Chapter 2: Soteriology – p. 69. Chapter 3: Ecclesiology – p. 95. Chapter 4: Politics – p. 135. Conclusion – p. 180. Bibliography – p. 198. The Theology of John Tillotson (1630-1694) and Latitudinarianism in England Introduction The debate on John Tillotson John Tillotson (1630-1694), a late seventeenth-century clergyman of the Church of England, was active as preacher at Lincoln’s Inn and St Lawrence Jewry, became dean of Canterbury, and archbishop of Canterbury. While he was one of the major figures of his period, he has been a relatively neglected figure in terms of scholarly interest. Only a few articles have seriously focused on Tillotson as a theologian. More frequently, he has been studied in the context of a group of Anglican clergy of the late seventeenth century called Latitudinarians, being described as a typical example. This thesis aims to fill up the deficiency of detailed studies on Tillotson’s theology and, in doing so, seeks to provide a more accurate picture of Latitudinarians of the seventeenth century, the group to which he belonged. Among Tillotson’s fellow Latitudinarians of the century were John Wilkins, Joseph Glanvill, Simon Patrick, Edward Fowler, Edward Stillingfleet, Gilbert Burnet, Thomas Tenison, William Lloyd, and Robert Grove. According to the traditional view, the characteristics of Latitudinarians include an advocacy of reason in religion, theological minimalism, an emphasis on practical morality above theological speculation, rejection of obstinacy on questions of ceremonial and ecclesiastical details, tolerance towards Dissenters, and connections with natural science. In this view, the Latitudinarians have been considered the precursors of deistic and secularised view of the world, which hollowed out the mystery and revelation in religion, reduced Christianity to mere moralism based on the positive view of human nature, and left direction of the universe to ordinary causal pattern rather than special providential intervention. This influential view on a thread of late seventeenth-century Anglican theology was set forth as early as the nineteenth century by Leslie Stephen. He said that the prominent Protestant divines of the seventeenth century were rationalists in principle, though they might receive the scriptures or the early fathers as the ultimate authority. They, opposing the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, appealed to the authority of the Bible upon which all Christians agreed. In the case where the Bible could not be the judge, for example where the scripture itself was the subject of the question, it should be determined by natural reason. According to 1 Stephen, ‘the Protestant writers against Rome were forging the weapons which were soon to be used against themselves.’ 1 He cited Tillotson’s words, ‘nothing ought to be received as a revelation from God which plainly contradicts the principle of natural religion. And nothing ought to be received as a divine doctrine or revelation without good proof that it is so.’2 This unambiguous assertion of the rationalist principle was frequently used by the deists, and this was only one example of a general tendency. For Stephen, it was not without reason that Anthony Collins, a proponent of deism, spoke of Tillotson as one ‘whom all English free- thinkers own as their head.’ Therefore, Stephen suggested that the emphasis on rational grounds for religion among Protestant divines became a stepping stone to deism.3 This point of view lasted into the twentieth century, but the comments began to carry a negative tone. Sketching the period, Norman Sykes said that ‘reason degenerated into common sense; personal religious experience into homespun morality; the venture of faith into a prudential calculation of profit and loss. Archbishop Tillotson, who set a new style of preaching as well as a new content of sermons, was typical of this tendency to reduce the Divine Benevolence into an easy good nature.’ 4 Gerald R. Cragg observed that reason did not undermine revelation from the outset, but over time the temper of the age became inclined towards reason, and the Latitudinarians were pivotal in this direction. He said that the preference for clarity tempted the Latitudinarians to ‘oversimplify all profound questions. The terms in which they defined reason, together with their active interest in practical problems, persuaded them that essential beliefs were few and simple.’ Cragg also related the popularity of Tillotson’s sermons to the increasing vogue of deism in England.5 Irène Simon, though mainly concerned with the style of Tillotson’s sermons, commented that ‘he gave encouragement to the view that moral virtues made up the sum of religion’6 and his sermons heralded a new age in which ‘the divines had less to say than the philosophes and in which the values of civilized living were prized more highly than religious zeal.’7 However, the harshest commentator was probably Horton Davies. Examining different styles of preaching in the seventeenth century, he said that Anglican preachers of the early 1 Leslie Stephen, History of English thought in the eighteenth century, 2d ed, 2 vols. (London, 1881), p. 79. 2 John Tillotson, A sermon preached at Whitehall, April the 4th, 1679 (London, 1679), p. 11. 3 Stephen, History of English thought, pp. 77-79. 4 Norman Sykes, The English Religious Tradition; Sketches of Its Influence on Church, State, and Society (London, 1953), pp. 52-56. 5 Gerald R. Cragg, The church and the age of reason, 1648-1789 (Harmondsworth, 1960), pp. 65-80. 6 Irène Simon, Three restoration divines: Barrow, South, Tillotson, 2 vols.