Samuel Bold
Encyclopedia
Samuel Bold was an English
clergyman and controversialist, a supporter of the arguments of John Locke
for religious toleration
.
, he was brought up by William Cook, a nonconformist minister ejected from St. Michael's Church, Chester, in 1662, who died in 1684. Bold was instituted vicar of Shapwick in Dorset
in 1674, but resigned or was ejected in 1688; he was instituted rector of Steeple
in the Isle of Purbeck
in 1682, and held the living until his death. In 1721 he succeeded to the adjacent parish of Tyneham
, united to Steeple by act of parliament.
In 1682, when a brief for the persecuted Huguenot
s was to be read in church, Bold preached a sermon against persecution and published it. With a second edition in the same year, it raised a great outcry; Bold then published a Plea for Moderation towards Dissenters. He justified his general praise of nonconformists, mentioning amongst others Richard Baxter
and Henry Hickman
as "shining lights in the church of God". In 1720 Bold republished the sermon against persecution, adding a short account of his subsequent troubles.
The grand jury
at the next assize presented Bold for the sermon and also for the Plea, and he was cited before the court of William Gulston
, Bishop of Bristol
, where he was accused of having "writ and preached a scandalous libel". Bold wrote answers to these charges, but he was commanded, on pain of suspension, to preach three recantation sermons. Meanwhile, in the civil courts, a further offence was there alleged against him that he had written a letter befriending a dissenting apothecary in Blandford. For the letter and the two publications he was sentenced to pay three fines, and Bold was seven weeks in prison before they were paid. After this the death of the bishop and of the promoter in the civil suit freed him from further annoyance.
, author of a Scholastical History of the Primitive and General Use of Liturgies in the Christian Church, which Bold perceived to be written to afford a pretext for persecuting dissent; in 1691 he followed it up with a second tract.
In 1697 he began his tracts in support of Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
. The Reasonableness of Christianity had appeared in 1695, and was attacked by Rev. John Edwards as a Socinian. Locke replied with a Vindication of his essay, to which Edwards answered in Socinianism Unmasked. At this point Bold entered the field, publishing in 1697 a Discourse on the true Knowledge of Christ Jesus, in which he insists, with Locke, that Christ and the apostles considered it enough for a Christian to believe that Jesus was the Christ. To the sermon he appended comments on Locke's essay and Vindication, declaring the essay 'one of the best books that had been published for at least 1,600 years,' and criticising Edwards's tracts. Edwards immediately retorted, and produced a second tract from Bold with a preface on the meaning of the terms "reason" and "antiquity" as employed in the Socinian controversy
. This was in 1697; in 1698 a third tract of Bold's appeared, answering some Animadversions, published at Oxford. In 1699 he brought out a Consideration of the Objections to the Essay on the Human Understanding. Locke acknowledged Bold's support in his 'Second Vindication' of his essay; and in 1703 Bold visited Locke at Oates, Essex. He was then meditating the publication of further tracts which Locke dissuaded him from proceeding with. They were, however, published in 1706, and consist of a Discourse concerning the Resurrection of the Same Body and two letters on the necessary immateriality of created thinking substance. The letters discuss and condemn the views expressed in John Broughton
's Psychologia and John Norris's Essay towards the Theory of an Ideal World. The discourse deals with Daniel Whitby
's arguments against Locke.
In 1717 Bold's publisher brought out another tract demanding toleration; and in 1724 appeared his last controversial work, Some Thoughts concerning Church Authority. This was occasioned by Benjamin Hoadley's launching of the Bangorian Controversy
, with a sermon on the nature of the kingdom of Christ, and his Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Nonjurors, of which Bold approved. Bold was answered by several persons, among others by Conyers Place, who condemned him as full of "stupid and affected cant".
In 1693 he published a devotional treatise entitled Christ's Importunity with Sinners to accept of Him, which had been probably already published in 1675. The republication contains an affectionate dedication to Mrs. Mary Cook, the widow of William Cook, his early tutor. In 1696, an epidemic having caused many deaths in his parish, he published eight Meditations on Death written during the leisure bodily distempers have afforded me.
In the year before his death Bold published a Help to Devotion containing a short prayer on every chapter in the New Testament.
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
clergyman and controversialist, a supporter of the arguments of John Locke
John Locke
John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...
for religious toleration
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
.
Life
Apparently a native of ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, he was brought up by William Cook, a nonconformist minister ejected from St. Michael's Church, Chester, in 1662, who died in 1684. Bold was instituted vicar of Shapwick in Dorset
Shapwick, Dorset
Shapwick is a village and civil parish in east Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour five miles south east of Blandford Forum and eight miles north of Poole...
in 1674, but resigned or was ejected in 1688; he was instituted rector of Steeple
Steeple, Dorset
Steeple is a hamlet in the Purbeck district of the English county of Dorset. It is situated some eight miles west of Swanage. The village has a population of 94 ....
in the Isle of Purbeck
Isle of Purbeck
The Isle of Purbeck, not a true island but a peninsula, is in the county of Dorset, England. It is bordered by the English Channel to the south and east, where steep cliffs fall to the sea; and by the marshy lands of the River Frome and Poole Harbour to the north. Its western boundary is less well...
in 1682, and held the living until his death. In 1721 he succeeded to the adjacent parish of Tyneham
Tyneham
Tyneham is a ghost village in south Dorset, England, near Lulworth on the Isle of Purbeck. It remains a civil parish.-Location:The village is situated northeast of Worbarrow Bay on the Jurassic Coast, about south of Wareham and about west of Swanage. It is part of the Lulworth Estate. Tyneham is...
, united to Steeple by act of parliament.
In 1682, when a brief for the persecuted Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
s was to be read in church, Bold preached a sermon against persecution and published it. With a second edition in the same year, it raised a great outcry; Bold then published a Plea for Moderation towards Dissenters. He justified his general praise of nonconformists, mentioning amongst others Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter
Richard Baxter was an English Puritan church leader, poet, hymn-writer, theologian, and controversialist. Dean Stanley called him "the chief of English Protestant Schoolmen". After some false starts, he made his reputation by his ministry at Kidderminster, and at around the same time began a long...
and Henry Hickman
Henry Hickman
Henry Hickman was an English ejected minister and controversialist.-Life:A native of Worcestershire, he was educated at St Catharine Hall, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. in 1648. At the end of 1647 he entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and the next year obtained by favour of the parliamentary...
as "shining lights in the church of God". In 1720 Bold republished the sermon against persecution, adding a short account of his subsequent troubles.
The grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
at the next assize presented Bold for the sermon and also for the Plea, and he was cited before the court of William Gulston
William Gulston
-Life:Son of Nathaniel Gouldston D.D. of Wymondham, Leicestershire, he was educated at Grantham and was admitted sizar at St John's College, Cambridge in 1653. He graduated B.A. in 1658, M.A. in 1661, and D.D. in 1679....
, Bishop of Bristol
Bishop of Bristol
The Bishop of Bristol heads the Church of England Diocese of Bristol in the Province of Canterbury, in England.The present diocese covers parts of the counties of Somerset and Gloucestershire together with a small area of Wiltshire...
, where he was accused of having "writ and preached a scandalous libel". Bold wrote answers to these charges, but he was commanded, on pain of suspension, to preach three recantation sermons. Meanwhile, in the civil courts, a further offence was there alleged against him that he had written a letter befriending a dissenting apothecary in Blandford. For the letter and the two publications he was sentenced to pay three fines, and Bold was seven weeks in prison before they were paid. After this the death of the bishop and of the promoter in the civil suit freed him from further annoyance.
Works
In 1688 he published A Brief Account of the Rise of the name Protestant, and what Protestantism is. By a professed Enemy to Persecution. In 1690 he engaged in a controversy with Thomas ComberThomas Comber (dean of Durham)
-Life:From a family at Barkham, Sussex, his father, James Comber, was the fourth son of John Comber, who was uncle to Thomas Comber, dean of Carlisle. His mother was Mary, daughter of Bryan Burton of Westerham, Kent, and widow of Edward Hampden...
, author of a Scholastical History of the Primitive and General Use of Liturgies in the Christian Church, which Bold perceived to be written to afford a pretext for persecuting dissent; in 1691 he followed it up with a second tract.
In 1697 he began his tracts in support of Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity and An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
First appearing in 1690 with the printed title An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke concerns the foundation of human knowledge and understanding. He describes the mind at birth as a blank slate filled later through experience...
. The Reasonableness of Christianity had appeared in 1695, and was attacked by Rev. John Edwards as a Socinian. Locke replied with a Vindication of his essay, to which Edwards answered in Socinianism Unmasked. At this point Bold entered the field, publishing in 1697 a Discourse on the true Knowledge of Christ Jesus, in which he insists, with Locke, that Christ and the apostles considered it enough for a Christian to believe that Jesus was the Christ. To the sermon he appended comments on Locke's essay and Vindication, declaring the essay 'one of the best books that had been published for at least 1,600 years,' and criticising Edwards's tracts. Edwards immediately retorted, and produced a second tract from Bold with a preface on the meaning of the terms "reason" and "antiquity" as employed in the Socinian controversy
Socinian controversy
The Socinian controversy in the Church of England was a theological argument on christology carried out by English theologians for around a decade from 1687...
. This was in 1697; in 1698 a third tract of Bold's appeared, answering some Animadversions, published at Oxford. In 1699 he brought out a Consideration of the Objections to the Essay on the Human Understanding. Locke acknowledged Bold's support in his 'Second Vindication' of his essay; and in 1703 Bold visited Locke at Oates, Essex. He was then meditating the publication of further tracts which Locke dissuaded him from proceeding with. They were, however, published in 1706, and consist of a Discourse concerning the Resurrection of the Same Body and two letters on the necessary immateriality of created thinking substance. The letters discuss and condemn the views expressed in John Broughton
John Broughton
John Broughton is an Australian astronomer. He is a prolific discoverer of asteroids. His observations are done at Reedy Creek Observatory in Queensland .-Discoveries and research:...
's Psychologia and John Norris's Essay towards the Theory of an Ideal World. The discourse deals with Daniel Whitby
Daniel Whitby
Daniel Whitby was a controversial English theologian and biblical commentator. An Arminian priest in the Church of England, Whitby was known as strongly anti-Calvinistic and later gave evidence of strong Arian and Unitarian tendencies....
's arguments against Locke.
In 1717 Bold's publisher brought out another tract demanding toleration; and in 1724 appeared his last controversial work, Some Thoughts concerning Church Authority. This was occasioned by Benjamin Hoadley's launching of the Bangorian Controversy
Bangorian Controversy
The Bangorian Controversy was a theological argument within the Church of England in the early 18th century, with strong political overtones. The origins of the controversy lay in the 1716 posthumous publication of George Hickes's Constitution of the Catholic Church, and the Nature and...
, with a sermon on the nature of the kingdom of Christ, and his Preservative against the Principles and Practices of Nonjurors, of which Bold approved. Bold was answered by several persons, among others by Conyers Place, who condemned him as full of "stupid and affected cant".
In 1693 he published a devotional treatise entitled Christ's Importunity with Sinners to accept of Him, which had been probably already published in 1675. The republication contains an affectionate dedication to Mrs. Mary Cook, the widow of William Cook, his early tutor. In 1696, an epidemic having caused many deaths in his parish, he published eight Meditations on Death written during the leisure bodily distempers have afforded me.
In the year before his death Bold published a Help to Devotion containing a short prayer on every chapter in the New Testament.