Charles Blount (deist)
Encyclopedia
Charles Blount was a British
deist
and controversialist who published several anonymous essays critical of the existing English order.
, Islington, Middlesex, the fourth son of Sir Henry Blount
. His father educated him at home and exposed him to freethinking philosophy. In 1672 Charles inherited lands in Islington and the estate of Blount's Hall in Staffordshire
. He married Eleanor Tyrrell in Westminster Abbey
at the end of 1672; they had three sons and a daughter. Throughout his life he remained at Blount's Hall as a leisured gentleman, although he also travelled to London
to participate in courtly life.
Blount's publications were consistently anonymous or written under a pseudonym, and with a radical or Whig
slant. In 1673 he wrote Mr Dreyden Vindicated, defending John Dryden
's The Conquest of Granada
from Richard Leigh
's attacks. In 1673 he also penned the anonymous The Friendly Vindication.
In 1678 Blount became a member of the Green Ribbon Club
, a group of radical Whig advocates and activists. In 1679 he published An Appeal from the Country to the City under the name of Junius Brutus. It was a strongly Whig piece that suggested that the Popish Plot
was entirely real. It painted a lurid picture of what life in London would be like under James II
and Roman Catholicism. In this case, the printer was seized and fined, and the pamphlet was burned by the common hangman (i.e. a symbolic execution of the book for treason). The same year, he assumed the name of Philopatris ("lover of his country") to write A Just Vindication of Learning, which was an argument against the act licensing printers. He mimicked John Milton
's previous Areopagitica
. When Thomas Hobbes
died (1680), Blount produced an anonymous broadsheet of "sayings" from Hobbes' book Leviathan
.
In 1693 Blount used his ironic approach to argue for the validity of William and Mary
. His King William and Queen Mary Conquerors argued that they were, in fact, conquerors of England, since they landed with force; therefore the people should support them as able protectors, as Hobbes had argued that the people should obey anyone who represented such force. This pamphlet was licensed by the Tory
licensor, Edmund Bohun
. In 1695 Parliament
debated the fate of the work and had it, too, burned by the common hangman; and Bohun lost his position. The Act for the licensing of the press was allowed to expire, as well.
In 1689 Blount's wife had died, and he wanted to marry her sister, but such marriages were illegal at that time in England. He wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury
in 1693 and requested permission, but was denied. In August 1693 he committed suicide.
must be correct. Henry Compton, then bishop of London
, argued that the book should be suppressed, but while Compton was out of the city, enthusiastic opponents of the work had it publicly burned. The same year, Blount sent a copy of the work to Thomas Hobbes
, whose philosophy Blount admired, with a letter in praise of Arianism
, which was then published.
Blount's deist publications came in 1680, with Great Diana of the Ephesians and The Two First Books of Philostratus concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus. The two works appear to be translations and history. However, the notes in the work attacked Christianity
directly. First, Blount suggested that rational religion was destroyed by the Church. Second, his decrying of pagan sacrifices was a coded attack on eucharist
ic doctrine and Church practice. He attached extensive notes which mocked "priestcraft" and corrupt priests.
He followed this with a smaller work, Miracles, No Violations of the Laws of Nature (1683), which contained only quotations from Bishop Burnet
, Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza
, combined to say that accounts of miracles are without any empirical basis.
He also wrote his own Religio laici (1683) to answer John Dryden
's Religio Laici (1682) and its attacks on deism.
In 1693 he wrote, anonymously, The Oracles of Reason. It was a miscellany of essays, some by Charles Gildon
(whose presence in the volume may or may not have been intended by Blount). The essays expressed doubts about the Book of Genesis, denied the possibility of revelation
, denied miracles, and suggested that there might be many worlds with life on them.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
deist
Deism
Deism in religious philosophy is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the...
and controversialist who published several anonymous essays critical of the existing English order.
Life
Blount was born in Upper HollowayUpper Holloway
Upper Holloway is a district in the London Borough of Islington, London, centred around the A1 Holloway Road.-Overview:The name has fallen out of common use and the area is generally regarded as being a part of Archway or Holloway. The use of 'Upper Holloway' is most often used for Upper Holloway...
, Islington, Middlesex, the fourth son of Sir Henry Blount
Henry Blount
Sir Henry Blount was a 17th century English landowner, traveller and author.-Life:He was the third son of Sir Thomas Pope Blount of Blount's Hall, Staffordshire and Tyttenhanger, Hertfordshire and was educated at St Albans Free School and Trinity College, Oxford...
. His father educated him at home and exposed him to freethinking philosophy. In 1672 Charles inherited lands in Islington and the estate of Blount's Hall in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. He married Eleanor Tyrrell in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
at the end of 1672; they had three sons and a daughter. Throughout his life he remained at Blount's Hall as a leisured gentleman, although he also travelled to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to participate in courtly life.
Blount's publications were consistently anonymous or written under a pseudonym, and with a radical or Whig
British Whig Party
The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...
slant. In 1673 he wrote Mr Dreyden Vindicated, defending John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
's The Conquest of Granada
The Conquest of Granada
The Conquest of Granada is a Restoration era stage play, a two-part tragedy written by John Dryden that was first acted in 1670 and 1671 and published in 1672...
from Richard Leigh
Richard Leigh (poet)
Richard Leigh , English poet, was the younger son of Edward Leigh and Elizabeth Talbot of Rushall, Staffordshire. He entered Queen’s College, Oxford in 1666 at age sixteen. Sources rumor that, after school, Leigh left Oxford for London and became an actor in the Duke of York’s or King's Company...
's attacks. In 1673 he also penned the anonymous The Friendly Vindication.
In 1678 Blount became a member of the Green Ribbon Club
Green Ribbon Club
The Green Ribbon Club was one of the earliest of the loosely combined associations which met from time to time in London taverns or coffee-houses for political purposes in the 17th century....
, a group of radical Whig advocates and activists. In 1679 he published An Appeal from the Country to the City under the name of Junius Brutus. It was a strongly Whig piece that suggested that the Popish Plot
Popish Plot
The Popish Plot was a fictitious conspiracy concocted by Titus Oates that gripped England, Wales and Scotland in Anti-Catholic hysteria between 1678 and 1681. Oates alleged that there existed an extensive Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II, accusations that led to the execution of at...
was entirely real. It painted a lurid picture of what life in London would be like under James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
and Roman Catholicism. In this case, the printer was seized and fined, and the pamphlet was burned by the common hangman (i.e. a symbolic execution of the book for treason). The same year, he assumed the name of Philopatris ("lover of his country") to write A Just Vindication of Learning, which was an argument against the act licensing printers. He mimicked John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
's previous Areopagitica
Areopagitica
Areopagitica: A speech of Mr. John Milton for the liberty of unlicensed printing to the Parliament of England is a 1644 prose polemical tract by English author John Milton against censorship...
. When Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
died (1680), Blount produced an anonymous broadsheet of "sayings" from Hobbes' book Leviathan
Leviathan (book)
Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan...
.
In 1693 Blount used his ironic approach to argue for the validity of William and Mary
William III of England
William III & II was a sovereign Prince of Orange of the House of Orange-Nassau by birth. From 1672 he governed as Stadtholder William III of Orange over Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel of the Dutch Republic. From 1689 he reigned as William III over England and Ireland...
. His King William and Queen Mary Conquerors argued that they were, in fact, conquerors of England, since they landed with force; therefore the people should support them as able protectors, as Hobbes had argued that the people should obey anyone who represented such force. This pamphlet was licensed by the Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
licensor, Edmund Bohun
Edmund Bohun
Edmund Bohun was an English writer on history and politics, a publicist in the Tory interest.-Life:In the late 1660s he associated with William Sancroft, Samuel Parker and Leoline Jenkins, in a group of High Church proto-Tory thinkers. He began to write against the Whigs after the Exclusion Crisis...
. In 1695 Parliament
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. In 1066, William of Normandy introduced a feudal system, by which he sought the advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
debated the fate of the work and had it, too, burned by the common hangman; and Bohun lost his position. The Act for the licensing of the press was allowed to expire, as well.
In 1689 Blount's wife had died, and he wanted to marry her sister, but such marriages were illegal at that time in England. He wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
in 1693 and requested permission, but was denied. In August 1693 he committed suicide.
Works on religion and deism
In 1679 Blount published, anonymously, Anima Mundi, an essay that appeared to review pagan theories of the soul and afterlife. Throughout, Blount says that it is perfectly clear that the soul is immortal and that there is an afterlife, but his statements are made in a way that makes them absurd, and lengthy descriptions of other views are then juxtaposed with insincere claims that the ChurchChristian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
must be correct. Henry Compton, then bishop of London
Bishop of London
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers 458 km² of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames and a small part of the County of Surrey...
, argued that the book should be suppressed, but while Compton was out of the city, enthusiastic opponents of the work had it publicly burned. The same year, Blount sent a copy of the work to Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...
, whose philosophy Blount admired, with a letter in praise of Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
, which was then published.
Blount's deist publications came in 1680, with Great Diana of the Ephesians and The Two First Books of Philostratus concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus. The two works appear to be translations and history. However, the notes in the work attacked Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
directly. First, Blount suggested that rational religion was destroyed by the Church. Second, his decrying of pagan sacrifices was a coded attack on eucharist
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
ic doctrine and Church practice. He attached extensive notes which mocked "priestcraft" and corrupt priests.
He followed this with a smaller work, Miracles, No Violations of the Laws of Nature (1683), which contained only quotations from Bishop Burnet
Thomas Burnet
Thomas Burnet , theologian and writer on cosmogony.-Life:He was born at Croft near Darlington in 1635. After studying at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, he went to Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1651. There he was a pupil of John Tillotson...
, Hobbes, and Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
, combined to say that accounts of miracles are without any empirical basis.
He also wrote his own Religio laici (1683) to answer John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
's Religio Laici (1682) and its attacks on deism.
In 1693 he wrote, anonymously, The Oracles of Reason. It was a miscellany of essays, some by Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon , was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or...
(whose presence in the volume may or may not have been intended by Blount). The essays expressed doubts about the Book of Genesis, denied the possibility of revelation
Revelation
In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...
, denied miracles, and suggested that there might be many worlds with life on them.