John Toland: Life

1669-1722 [var. 1670; prob. b. as Seán Ó Tuathhalláin; also pseud. John Roberts in the period 1710-22]; b. 30 Nov., Inishowen, Co. Donegal, baptised by his own account Janus Junius, a Catholic, and supposedly bastard son of Derry priest; established early notoreity by disputing with a local priest; became Presbyterian at 15 [var. 16]; ed. Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Leiden; at Glasgow he manned barricades against the Jacobites and received a certificate as ‘ane true Protestant and loyal subject’; MA, Edinburgh Univ., 1691 [var. 1690]; attended Leiden, and became acquainted with Huguenots; studied at the Franciscan College in Prague; he met Lhuyd at Oxford; thought to have collaborated with Dermod O’Connor in his translation of Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Eirinn; started the ‘Deist Controversy’ with the publication of his Christianity not Mysterious (1696), the second edition appearing under his own name; elicited many answers in Ireland incl. those from Edward Synge and Swift, who called him the ‘great Oracle of anti-Christians’ and denominated him both a Catholic priest and the son of a priest in An Argument against Abolishing the Christian Religion (1708), satirising his writings extensively in A Tale of a Tub (1704); Dr. Peter Browne, FTCD, who was invited to reply by Narcissus Marsh, condemned Toland as ‘an inveterate enemy of revealed religion’; returned to Ireland in 1697, supposedly in hope of preferment; associated with the patronage of Robert Molesworth, a lifelong friend, and the Presbyterian Commonwealth circle associated with Wood St. Church (estab. in Dublin by Cromwell); caused resentment through his quarrelsome behaviour as well as his doctrines, and his constant boasting of the friendship of Locke; became acquainted with Molyneux in Dublin, who reported his imprudence in letters to Locke; fled before arrest, his Christianity being burned in Dublin by order of the House of Commons [var. Grand Jury]; Life of Milton (1698); edited The Oceana of James Harrington (1700); coins term ‘West Britain’ in his Limitations for the next Foreign Successor, or A New Saxon Race (1701); ed. Milton’s prose works (Berlin 1702), included in party that carried the Act of Succession to Hanover, effecting succession of English crown to Sophia, wife of Elector of Hanover and mother of George I, to the exclusion of Catholic candidates, later writing in in its defence (1710); issued Letter to Serena (1704), to Sophie Charlotte [Sophia] Queen of Prussia; coined term ‘pantheist’ in that writing, reiterating in it the title of Socinianism Truly Stated, by a pantheist (1705); impoverished by South Sea Bubble, and buried in pauper’s grave in Putney; he was the object of Locke’s coinage, ‘free-thinker’; castigated by French bishop as illegitimate; issued Reasons for Naturalising the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland (1714); issued The Probability of the Speedy and Final Destruction of the Pope (1718), infl. by Giordano Bruno’s Spaccio de la Beastia Trionfante (Eng. trans. 1713), which was favoured by Thomas Leslie Birch and other Presbyterians in Ulster; issued Pantheisticon sive Foruma Celebrandae Sodalitatis Socraticae (1720; trans. 1751), the manual for a civic religion, with liturgy along Freemason lines; first to employ the terms West Britain, South Britain, and North Britain for Ireland, England, and Scotland; accused by Thomas Sullevane of orchestrating Dermod O’Connor’s specious translation of Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Eirinn (History of Ireland), in prefatory notice to Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanricarde (1722); his posthumous History of the Celtic Religion and Learning Containing an Account of the Druids (1726) argued that the Celtic Church was Protestants in its opposition to Rome, and condemned the Bull Laudabiliter; his will and literary estate executed Pierre Desmaizeaux, who called it ‘a ridiculous story’ that Toland was a belated supporter of Cromwell’s policy in Ireland in his ‘Memoir of Toland’, attached to Collection of Several Pieces (1726); biographised as Irish in Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies, Vol. II (1821, pp.594-690); a copy of Christianity Not Mysterious annotated by Archbishop Marsh is held in Marsh’s Library, St Patrick’s Close, Dublin; kept a copy of Lucretius’s De rerum natura about him in the room where he died; there is an inscribed copy of Pantheisticon in the Queen’s University Library, having been donated by the Belfast First Presbyterian Church. RR CAB DNB PI DIB DIW OCEL FDA OCIL

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Works
[Selected:] Christianity not Mysterious (London 1696; rep. Stuttgart 1963); An Apology for Mr. Toland (London 1697); A Defense of Mr. Toland in a Letter to Himself (London 1697); Amyntor, or the defence of Milton's life [Life of Milton] (1698); Limitations for the next Foreign Successor, or A New Saxon Race: Debated in a Conference betwixt Two Gentlemen; Sent in a Letter to a Member of Parliament (1701); Propositions for Uniting the Two East India Companies (1701); Reasons for Address His Majesty to Invite into England their Highnesses, the Electress Dowager and the Electoral Prince of Hanover (1702);The Art of Governing Partys (London 1701); Reasons for Addressing His Majesty to Invite Into England [...] The Electress Dowage[r], and the Electoral Prince of Hanover and Likewise: Reasons for Attaining and Abjuring the Pretended Prince of Wales and All Others Pretending Any Claim, Right [...] (1702); Letters to Serena (1704); trans. Schiner, A Phillipick Oration to Incite the English Against the French (1707); Socinianism Truly Stated, by a Pantheist (1705); Socianism Truly Stated (1705); An Account of Prussia and Hanover (1705); footnotes to Matthew Cardinal Schiner, A Phillick Oration to Incite the English against the French (1707);The Jacobitism, Perjury, and Popery of High-Church Priests (1710); An Appeal to Honest People against Wicked Priests (1713); Dunkirk or Dover (1713); The Art of Restoring (1914) [against Robert Harley]; Reasons for Naturalising the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland on the same foot with all Other Nations (1714); Reasons for Naturalizing the Jews in Great Britain and Ireland on the Same Foot with All Other Nations (1714);The Probability of the Speedy and Final Destruction of the Pope (1718); Nazarenus, or, Jewish Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity […] With an Account of and Irish Manuscript of trhe four gospels; with A Summary of the Ancient IRISH CHRISTIANITY, before the Papal Corruptions and Usurpations, rep. in Gesine Palmer, Eine Freispruch für Paulus: John Tolands Theorie des Jeduenchristums mit einer Neuausgabe von Tolands “Nazarenus” von Claus-Michael Palmer (Berlin 1996); (1718) [descriptive of Irish MSS gospel]; Tetradymus (1720) [contains ‘Mangoneutes, Being a Defence of Nazarenus’, and ‘Clidophorus; or, of the Exoteric and the Esoteric Philosophy’]; Reasons [...] Why [...] an Act for the Better Securing the Dependency of the Kingdom of Ireland upon the Crown of Great-Britain, Shou’d not Pass into a Law (1720); Pantheisticon, or, the Form of Celebrating the Socratic Society [Latin 1720; trans. anon., 1751); History of the Celtic Religion and Learning Containing an Account of the Druids (1726) [otherwise History of the Druids]; Pantheisticon, sive forula celebrande sodalitatis Socraticae (Cosmopoli [e.g., London] 1720); Tetradymas (1720) [defence of Nazarenus]; A Collection of Several Pieces of Mr John Toland, ed. P. Desmaizeaux, 2 vols. (1726) [incls. ‘A Memorial to the Earl of [Oxford], 17 Dec. 1711’]; Also issued edition of James Harrington’s Oceana, rep. in Dublin in 1737.

Reprints, Specimens of a Critical History of the Celtic Religion, with a history of Abaris the Hyperborian, priest of the sun, to which is added an abstract of the life of the author (London: J. T. Tindlay 1815), 256pp.; Helen Darbyshire, ed., The Early Lives of Milton (London 1932) [incls. Toland's Life of Milton]; G. Gawlick, ed., Letters to Serena [1704] (Stuttgart & Bad Cannstatt: Freidrich Frommann 1964); Philip McGuinness, ed., John Toland, Christianity Not Mysterious: text, associated works and critical essays (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1997), 320pp.; Laurent Jaffro [ed.,] La Constitution Primitive de l’Église Chretienne/The Primitive Constitution of the Christian Church: Texte anglais et traduction manuscrite précédés de L’Ecclésiologie de John Toland par Laurent Jaffro [Ser.: Libre pensée et littérature clandestine] (Paris: Honoré Champion 2003), 272 pages [infra].

L’Ecclésiologie de John Toland: I. Introduction II. L’histoire du texte anglais III. La situation du manuscrit de Rouen IV. Les autorités et l’autorisation V. La réduction nominaliste de l’ecclesia VI. Des chrétiens sans Église à lÉglise sans chrétiens VII. La réduction politique de l’ordination VIII. L’ecclésiologie républicaine IX. L’ecclésiologie non-conformiste X. Conclusion XI. Note sur l’édition XII. Bibliographie THE PRIMITIVE CONSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH Chapter 1 The occasion and argument of the work Chapter 2 Of the Christian religion Chapter 3 Of the Church, and the distinctions thereof Chapter 4 Of synods and councils Chapter 5 Of the marks of the true Church Chapter 6 Of ordination, and the various orders of priests Chapter 7 Of the religious teachers instituted by Christ LA CONSTITUTION PRIMITIVE DE L’ÉGLISE CHRÉTIENNE Chapitre 1 L’occasion et l’argument de l’ouvrage Chapitre 2 De la religion chrétienne Chapitre 3 De l’Église et de ses distinctions Chapitre 4 Des synodes et des conciles Chapitre 5 Des marques de la vraie Église Chapitre 6 De l’ordination et des différents ordres de prêtres Chapitre 7 Des personnes commises par Christ pour prêcher la religion Appendice 1 Extrait de Mangoneutes Appendice 2 Titre et sommaire de Priesthood without Priestcraft Index des références aux Écritures Index des noms.

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Criticism
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica, Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, pp.594-690.

Anna Seeber, John Toland als politscher Schriftsteller (Schrmberg [thesis] 1933).

Gustav Berthold, John Toland und der Monismus der Gegenwart (1876).

Albert Lantoine, Un précurseur de la Franc-Maçonnerie: John Toland, 1670-1722: suivi de la traduction française du “Pantheisticon” de John Toland (Paris: Emile Nourry 1927).

Marit Muft, Liebnizens Kritik der Religions - philosophie von John Toland (1940).

J. G. Simms, ‘John Toland 1670-1722, a Donegal Heretic’, Irish Historical Studies, XVI (1969), 304-20.

Margaret Jacob, The Newtonians and the English Revolution (Sussex: Harvester Press, 1976).

Robert E. Sullivan, John Toland and the Deist Controversy (Harvard UP 1982).

Stephen H. Daniel, John Toland: His Methods, Manners and Mind (Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP 1984).

David Berman, ‘The Irish Counter-Enlightenment,’ in Richard Kearney, ed., The Irish Mind (1985).

Stephen H. Daniel, ‘The Subversive Philosophy of John Toland’, in Paul Hyland & Neil Sammells, eds., Irish Writing, Exile and Subversion [Insight series] (London: Macmillan 1991), pp.1-12.

Pierre Lurbe, ‘John Toland et l’Irlande’, in Etudes Irlandaises, XVI-1 (1991), pp.19-27.

Alan Harrison, ‘John Toland and Celtic Studies’, in Cyril J. Byrne, Margaret Harry, and Pádraig Ó Siadhail, eds., Celtic Languages and Celtic Peoples (Proceedings of Second North American Congress of Celtic Studies] (1992), pp.561-62.

Alan Harrison, Béal Eirciúil as Inis Eoghan: John Toland 1670-1722 (BAC: Coscéim 1992), 111pp.

Alan Harrison, Béal Eiriciúil as Inis Eoghain: John Toland, 1670-1722 (Baile Átha Cliath: Coiscéim 1994), 105pp.

Philip McGuinness, ‘Tolerant Sectarian: The Peculiar Contradictions of John Toland’, in Times Literary Supplement, ‘Irish Literature’ Issue (27 Sept. 1996), p.14-15.

Philip McGuinness, ‘John Toland and Eighteenth-Century Irish Republicanism’, 19 (Summer 1997), pp.15-22.

Robert Sullivan, ‘John Toland’s Druids: A Mythopoeia of Celtic Identity’, in Bullán, 4, 1 (Autumn 1998), pp.19-41.

Caroline Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealth Man (Harvard UP 1959).

Margaret Jacob, The Radical Enlightenment (London: Allen & Unwin 1981); Jürgen Schneider and Ralf Sotscheck, Ireland: Eine Bibliographie selbständiger deutschsprachiger (Verlag Georg Büchner Buchhandlung 1989), pp.276-78.

Gordon Stein, ed., in The Encyclopedia of Unbelief (NY Prometheus Books q.d.).

Stephen H. Daniel, ‘The Subversive Philosophy of John Toland’, in Paul Hyland and Neil Sammells, ed., Irish Writing, [Bath College of Higher Ed.] (|Macmillan 1991), pp.1-12

W. B. Stanford, Ireland and the Classical Tradition (IAP 1984).

Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (John Benjamins Pub. Co., Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 1986), p.365; ftn.387/p.483.

Philip McGuinness, ‘Tolerant Sectarian: The Peculiar Contradictions of John Toland’, in Times Literary Supplement, ‘Irish Literature’ Issue (27 Sept. 1996), p.14-15.

Richard Kearney, Postnationalist Ireland (1997), cited in review by Roy Foster, Times Literary Supplement, 11.4.1997.)

Philip McGuinness, ‘John Toland and Eighteenth-Century Irish Republicanism’, in Bullán: An Irish Studies Journal (Summer 1997), pp.15-22.

Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Tranlsations, Languages, Cultures (Cork UP 1996), p.96.

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Notes

Margaret Drabble, ed., Oxford Companion of English Literature, ed. (OUP: 1985), calls him a freethinker, b. Inisowen, Donegal; ‘educated from the cradle in grossest superstition’, he says in his Apology (1697); studied Scotland and Holland and settled at Oxford, where he completed Christianity Not Mysterious (1696); travelled to Berlin in 1702; Letters of Serena (1704) addressed to Queen of Prussia, coined the word ‘pantheist’ in 1705; Pantheisticon (1720); life of Milton and edition his prose, 1698; Tetradymos (1720) distinguishes esoteric from exoteric; Swift called him ‘the great Oracle of the Anti-Christians’ in Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1708), rep. in Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, ed. Herbert Davis (Basil Blackwell 1939), Vol. II, p.37 [ref. given in Philip McGuinness, 1997].

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: selects Christianity Not Mysterious, “that nothing ought to be called a Mystery because we have not an adequate Idea of all its Properties, nor any at all of its Essence [...] knowing nothing of Bodies but their Properties, God has wisely provided we should understand no more of these than are useful and necessary for us, which is all our present Condition needs”; also, “neither to trouble our selves nor others with what is useless, were it known; or what is impossible to be known at all”; “we may as well deny the Existence of the Body, because we have not an idea of its real Essence, as call the Being of the Soul in question for the same Reason”; “what Infinite Goodness has not been pleas’d to reveal to us, we are either sufficiently capable to discover for our selves, or need not understand it at all.” called ‘the seminal work of Irish philosophy’ [FDA eds.; 765-68]; also selects A Critical History of the Celtic Religion, otherwise called A History of the Druids (1718, publ. 1726), in which he speaks of the Irish having been ‘strangely sollicitous’ to preserve manuscripts with their pre-Christian mythologies, and how ‘some indeed have been interpolated after the prevailing Christianity, which additions or alterations are nevertheless easily distinguish’d [...] two grand doctrines of the eternity and incorruptibility of the universe, and the incessant Revolution of all beings and forms [...] Hence their Allanimation and Transmigration [...; 970-72]. BIOG & COMM: ‘educated from the cradle in grossest superstition’, says his Apology (1697); Christianity &c burnt by orders of Dublin House of Commons; abandoned Ireland, 1697; Life of Milton, 1698; coined term ‘pantheist’; a native speaker, A History of the Druids (posthum. 1726); d. Putney; Bibl. [as in Criticism, supra; 803-04]. Further remarks: Christianity Not Mysterious the loudest call for a radical rethinking of traditional Christianity issued in the late seventeenth century, carried the radical subtitle that ‘there is nothing in the gospel contrary to reason nor above it’, 761-62; struck at the heart of the hierarchical, exclusive, conservative traditions of the Church of Ireland [...] Peter Browne wrote a direct [...] Answer &c (1697) [...] [also] Edward Synge’s Appendix to his Gentleman’s Religion (1698) [763]; compared with Berkeley; cast gauntlet before Anglicans of Ireland [...] attack on Christian mysteries and defence of natural religion represented a challenge to the political status quo [for if] no mysteries [...] nothing to separate rival sects, and no basis for penal laws [764]; ‘as referred to as ‘a late Author’ in E. Synge’s, An Appendix, Browne’s Answer, 788-790; Robert Clayton shows affinity with Toland on mystery and meaning [eds.; 797]; Toland slyly boasted that he had made Browne a bishop [805], Edmund Burke, ‘who, born within the last forty years, has read one word of Collins, and Toland, and Tindal [...] and that whole race who called themselves Free-thinkers? Who now reads Bolingbroke?’ [Reflections; 828-29n.]; Toland [et al.] all queried the basis of English rule in Ireland [856], compared with Tone as a humanist [857]; Molesworth was a friend [870]; most important and symbolic figure of all those [transitional characters] [...] forsook his faith and entered upon an intellectual career that was to make him notorious as a freethinker and as a founding figure of the enlightenment[. B]orn into the Gaelic world, he chose the English world; repudiated by it, he turned to Europe and its newly born vision of rational, secular, human community[. Y]et towards the end of his life, [he] returned to the culture he had initially foresaken and attempted to reincorporate it, as an object of study and as an early exercise in cultural anthropology [...] attempted to see early Irish history in a detached light [...; 962]; (cf. Michael Moore, p.965)

COPAC (2002) lists Oliver Hill, A rod for the back of fools: in answer to a book of Mr. John Toland, called Christianity not mysterious; [...]and to the lecture of one Dr. Joseph Brown, taken from the author's book against the circulation; and to the answer of one Mr. John Gardiner, surgeon, to that pretended lecture (1702); [Bernardo Davanzati-Bostichi,] A discourse upon coins [...] translated out of Italian by John Toland (1696) ; [Pierre Des Maizeaux, ed.,] The miscellaneous works of Mr. John Toland, now first published from his original manuscripts. [...] To the whole is prefixed, a copious account of Mr. Toland's life and writings., 2 vols. (1747); A collection of several pieces of Mr. John Toland: now first publish'd from his original manuscripts: with some memoirs of his life and writings (1726, another edn. 1747); The theological and philological works of the late Mr. John Toland: being a system of Jewish, Gentile and Mahometan Christianity [...] &c.] (1732); Letters from [...] the late earl of Shaftesbury [Anthony Ashley-Cooper], to Robert Molesworth, esq; now the Lord Viscount of that name. With two letters written by the late Sir John Cropley. To which is prefix'd a large introduction by the editor [John Toland] (1721); Edmund Curll, An historical account of the life and writings of the late eminently famous Mr. John Toland.: Containing, I. A faithful extract of his works, and an account of his travels in Germany, Holland, &c. II. An account of the controversies wherein he was engaged, and a particular enquiry into his principles [...] III. An exact catalogue of his writings, published both with, and without his name, and of the manuscripts he left behind (1722); A collection of several pieces of Mr. John Toland: now first publish'd from his original manuscripts ; with some memoirs of his life and writings (1726); The Oceana of James Harrington, and his other works; som wherof are now first publish'd from his own manuscripts. The whole collected, methodiz'd and review'd, with an exact account of his life prefix'd, by John Toland [...] &c.] (1700), and Do., as The Oceana of James Harrington, Esq: and his other works: with an account of his life prefix'd, by John Toland. To which is added, Plato redivivus: or, a dialogue concerning government (1737); The Oceana and other works of James Harrington, Esq. [...] with an extract account of his life prefix'd, by John Toland. To which is added, an appendix, containing all the political tracts wrote by this author, omitted in Mr. Toland's edition (1747); The Oceana and other works of James Harrington, with an account of his life by John Toland (1771); Samuel Clarke, Some reflections on that part of a book [by John Toland] called Amyntor, or the defence of Milton's life which relates to the writings of the primitive fathers and Canon of the New Testament (1689), and Do., [...] In a letter to a friend [Samuel Clarke] (1699); Christianity not mysterious: or, a treatise shewing, that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason, nor above it [...] , [John Toland]. To which is added, an apology for Mr. Toland, in relation to the Parliament of Ireland's ordering this book to be burnt [...] (1702); [Peter Browne,] A letter in answer to a book [by John Toland] entituled, Christianity not mysterious. As also to all those who set up for reason and evidence in opposition to revelation and mysteries [...] (1697); A Letter to the author of the Memorial of the State of England [John Toland] / Thomas Rawlins, (1705); An historical account of the life and writings of [...] John Toland [...] (1722); John Toland's Christianity not mysterious [German trans. as Christentum ohne Geheimnis] 1696 (1908); John Toland's Christianity not mysterious: text, associated works and critical essays. Christianity not mysterious, or, a treatise shewing, that there is nothing in the Gospel contrary to reason, nor above it, and that no Christian doctrine can be properly call'd a mystery. An apology for Mr. Toland, in a letter from himself to a member of the House of Commons in Ireland, written the day before his book was resolv'd to be burnt by the Committee of Religion, to which is prefix'd a narrative containing the occasion of the said letter. A defence of Mr Toland, in a letter to himself. Vindicius liberius, or, M. Toland's defence of himself, against the late Lower House of Convocation, and others [Facs. Edn.] (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1997), xii, 339pp. port.; A complete collection of the historical, political, and miscellaneous works of John Milton, both English and Latin. With som [sic] papers never before publish'd [...]To which is prefix'd the life of the author [by J. Toland] Containing, besides the history of his works, several extraordinary characters of men and books, sects, parties, and opinions (1698); Poems on affairs of state, from the reign of K. James the First, to the present year 1703. Written by the greatest wits of the age. Viz. Duke of Buckingham. the Earl of Rochester. The Earl of D----t. Lord J---s. Mr. Milton. Mr. Marvel. Mr. St. J---n. Mr. John Dryden. Dr. G---th. Mr. Toland. Mr Hughes. Mr. F---e. Mr Finch. Mr. Harcourt. Mr. T----n, &c. Many of which never before publish'd. Vol. II (1703), and Do., as Poems on affairs of state, from the reign of K. James the First, to the year 1703. Written by the greatest wits of the age. Viz. The late Duke of Buckingham. Late Earl of Rochester. Earl of Dorset. Lord Jefferys. Mr. Milton. Andrew Marvel Esq. Mr. St. John. Mr. Dryden. Dr. Garth. Mr. Toland. Mr Hughes. Mr. Foe. Mr Finch. Mr. Harcourt. Mr. Tutchin, &c. Many of which never before publish'd. Vol. II (1716). MONOGRAPHS, Gerhard Berthold, John Toland und der Monismus der Gegenwart (1876); Albert Lantoine, Un précurseur de la Franc-Maçonnerie: John Toland, 1670-1722: suivi de la traduction française du Pantheisticon de John Toland (1927); Anna Seeber, John Toland als politischer Schriftsteller: Inaugural-Dissertation (1933); Leibnizens Kritik der Religionsphilosophie von John Toland / Margrit Muff (1940); Carabelli Giancarlo, Tolandiana: materiali bibliografici per lo studio dell'opera e della fortuna di John Toland 1670-1722 (1975); Alfredo Sabetti, John Toland: un irregolare della società e della cultura inglese tra Seicento e Settecento (1976); Chiara Giuntini, Panteismo e ideologia repubblicana: John Toland (1979 ); Robert E. Sullivan, John Toland and the Deist controversy: a study in adaptations (1982); Manlio Iofrida, La filosofia di John Toland: spinozismo, scienza e religione nella cultura europea fra 1600 e 1700 (1983); Gavina Cherchi, Satira ed enigma: due saggi sul Pantheisticon di John Toland (1985); Stephen H. Daniel, John Toland: his methods, manners, and mind (1984); Giannes Plangeses, “John Toland”: hoi peges, he dome kai hoi epidraseis tou hylismou tou (1985); Ella Twynam, John Toland, Freethinker (1968 ); Margaret Candee Jacob, John Toland and the Newtonian ideology [q.d.]; Béal eiriciúil as Inis Eoghain: John Toland (1670-1722) / Harrison, Alan (1994); Gavina Luigia Cherchi, Atheism, dissimulation and atomism in the philosophy of John Toland (1994); Robert Rees Evans, Pantheisticon: the career of John Toland (1991). ARTICLES, Giovanni Aquilecchia, ‘Nota su John Toland traduttore di Giordano Bruno', in English miscellany, 9 (1958); Zbigniew Ogonowski, ‘Le “Christiamisme sans mystères” selon John Toland et les sociniens', in Archiwum historii filozofii i mysli spolecznej, 12 (1966); Maria Rita Pagnoni Sturlese, ‘Postille autografe di John Toland allo Spaccio del Bruno', in Giornale critico della filosofia italiana, 65 (1986).

Belfast Public Library holds A Critical History of the Celtic Religion and Learning (1726); Ulster Univ. Library (Morris Collection), holds A Critical History of the Celtic Religion, with a history of Abaris the Hyperborian, priest of the sun, to which is added an abstract of the life of the author. Printed by J. T. Tindlay (1815) 256p.

Portrait: The only known portrait of Toland appears in U. G. Thorschmid, Versuch einer Vollstandige Englandiche Freydenker-Bibliothek (1766), Vol. 3; rep. in Stephen H. Daniel, John Toland: His Methods, Manners, and Mind. It came from Volume 3 of . This is the only known portrait of John Toland. Interestingly, it shows him holding a copy of Pantheisticon.

More Tolands: A John Toland is listed as a “married taxable” in the Pennsylvania Archive (Robinson Twa III, 22, 767) and also appears onthe 1784 tax list. He was a private in Capt. Thomas Rankin’s company of militia July 8-1782 (Pa Archives, VI, 2, 145). In the 1790 census John Toland is in Strabane (Penn.) with one son and one daughter listed as children and also appears on the 1793 tax list for Strabane. In 1785 he was granted 400 acres on King's Creek in what is now Hancock Co. [...]. (Summary of information on The Toland Family of Washington, given in the “Raymond M. Bell Anthology” [link])

Pantheism defined: In 1710 Toland offered a definition of his term pantheism in a letter to Leibniz where he referred to ‘the pantheistic opinion of those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe’ [14th Feb 1710].

William [Nicholson], Bishop of Derry, The Irish Historical Library (1724), The late Mr Toland valu[e]d himself much on the Historical Discoveries which he met with in an old Latin Manuscript of the four Gospels in Irish characters; and fell foul upon Fr Simon for affirming that the Book was written in Saxon letters, that the writer was an English Benedictine monk, and his name Dom. Aelbrigte, whereas, says Nazarenus, the truth of the matter is, Do is an Irish prepositive Particle; and Maelbrigte, the Transcriber’s name, signifies servant of Brigit [...] Mr Toland’s book is (since he first perused it) fallen into other good Company in the Harleyan Library’ [xxvi] [...] I shall not dispute Mr Toland’s skill in the Irish tongue [xxvii] lest I give my self an air of knowing what I do not [...] [author disputes Toland’s interpretation of -anus suffix in inscription of said Book]. Also disputes Toland’s account of the Culdees as a ‘sort of Lay-religious who had the power of electing their own bishops’ [xxix].

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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)