Furneaux, Philip (1726–1783)

views updated

FURNEAUX, PHILIP (1726–1783)

Philip Furneaux, an English dissenter minister, in 1770 published a volume criticizing william blackstone's exposition of the laws of toleration. Furneaux opposed all restraints on the expression of religious or irreligious opinions. He flatly rejected the bad tendency test, proposing in its place punishment of overt acts only. His book of 1770 was republished in Philadelphia in 1773 under the title The Palladium of Conscience. Furneaux influenced thomas jefferson and the writing of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom.

Leonard W. Levy
(1986)