Nazarenus (British Deism and Free Thought)

An intensive, innovative study of Toland's surviving manuscripts to recreate the full range of his theological and political philosophy. Champion argues that Toland exploited, sometimes parasitized, the established forms of ecclesiastical erudition in order to mount his anticlerical arguments. Champion has also discovered Toland's surprising royal patrons on the Continent: the Electress Sophia of Hanover, along with her daughter Charlotte, and the flamboyant general and book collector Prince Eugene of Savoy. On the whole, Toland is revealed as something other than a pure outsider in pure opposition to the structures of society, yet still managing to infuriate great numbers of his contemporaries through his subversive views.