Publication of An essay on spirit in 1750 was, on the
face of it, no
particular landmark in the history of heterodoxy. There had been
arguments in Anglican circles since the 1680s about ‘mystery’
and
the Holy Trinity, all part of the assault on fundamental articles of belief
waged by such critics as John Toland and Anthony Collins after the
Revolution Settlement, a time when interest in Arian ideas was reviving
among Isaac Newton's followers, particularly Samuel Clarke and William
Whiston. An essay on spirit – this latest expression of
a highly developed
Arianism – was couched in scholastic, even esoteric language, of
apparent
interest only to controversialists on either side of the question. What,
however, made it a cause célèbre
was the talk from the moment it left the
press that its author and apologist for what we have recently been
reminded was the archetypal Christian deviation was none other than
one of the most senior members of the Church of Ireland – the bishop
of
Clogher, Robert Clayton, himself an Englishman by birth. Though not
every commentator could or would believe this ascription, the bishop
himself never attempted to deny it and, before long, the unsettling
evidence of the extent to which heresy had penetrated the highest circles
of the Anglican establishment was beyond serious doubt. Its appearance
(and the writings which followed) led to vigorous counter-blasts on both
sides of the Irish Sea from a range of clerical and lay opinion that
extended well beyond the confines of any church ‘party’. Having
spent
the previous half century countering, with some success, the different
strains of deism and free-thinking on the frontiers of Anglicanism, a
broad band of clergy was alarmed that Clayton's writings of the 1750s
bore disturbing witness to the presence of traitors within the citadel
who,
in challenging the Church to tolerate their continued presence, were
ready to endanger its moderate latitudinarian character. Moreover, An
essay on spirit appeared at a time when the writings of Middleton
and
Hume also demanded the notice of theologians, and the ‘Church in
Danger!’ had not ceased to be an appropriate battle cry to marginalised
Tories.
Kidson, C. et Tooley, M. J., édit. (1977) : The Quaternary History of the Irish Sea, Liverpool, Seel House Press, vi + 345 p., 98 fig. dont 8 h.t., 20 pi., 17 tabl., index, 17,5 x 25 cm, relié, $33