A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and NationsWheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Religion
A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations
Wheeler, J. M. (Joseph Mazzini)
Free thought -- Biography
Annet (Peter). One of the most forcible writers among the English
Deists, b. at Liverpool in 1693. He was at one time a schoolmaster
and invented a system of shorthand. Priestley learnt it at school
and corresponded with Annet. In 1739 he published a pamphlet on
Freethinking the Great Duty of Religion, by P. A., minister of
religion. This was followed by the Conception of Jesus as the
Foundation of the Christian Religion, in which he boldly attacks
the doctrine of the Incarnation as "a legend of the Romanists,"
and The Resurrection of Jesus Considered (1744) in answer to Bishop
Sherlock's Trial of the Witnesses. This controversy was continued in
The Resurrection Reconsidered and The Resurrection Defenders Stript
of all Defence. In An Examination of the History and Character of
St. Paul he attacks the sincerity of the apostle to the Gentiles and
even questions the authenticity of his epistles. In Supernaturals
Examined (1747) he argues that all miracles are incredible. In 1761
he issued nine numbers of the Free Inquirer, in which he attacked
the authenticity and credibility of the Pentateuch. For this he was
brought before the King's Bench and sentenced to suffer one month's
imprisonment in Newgate, to stand twice in the pillory, once at
Charing Cross and once at the Exchange, with a label "For Blasphemy,"
then to have a year's hard labor in Bridewell and to find sureties
for good behavior during the rest of his life. It is related that
a woman seeing Annet in the pillory said, "Gracious! pilloried for
blasphemy. Why, don't we blaspheme every day!" After his release Annet
set up a school at Lambeth. Being asked his views on a future life
he replied by this apologue: "One of my friends in Italy, seeing the
sign of an inn, asked if that was the Angel." "No," was the reply,
"do you not see it is the sign of a dragon." "Ah," said my friend,
"as I have never seen either angel or dragon, how can I tell whether
it is one or the other?" Died 18 Jan. 1769. The History of the Man
after God's Own Heart (1761) ascribed to Annet, was more probably
written by Archibald Campbell. The View of the Life of King David
(1765) by W. Skilton, Horologist, is also falsely attributed to Annet.
Anthero de Quental, Portuguese writer, b. San Miguel 1843. Educated
for the law at the University of Coimbra, he has published both poetry
and prose, showing him to be a student of Hartmann, Proudhon and Rénan,
and one of the most advanced minds in Portugal.
Anthony (Susan Brownell). American reformer, b. of a Quaker family
at South Adams, Massachusetts, 15 Feb. 1820. She became a teacher,
a temperance reformer, an opponent of slavery, and an ardent advocate
of women's rights. Of the last movement she became secretary. In
conjunction with Mrs. E. C. Stanton and Parker Pillsbury she conducted
The Revolutionist founded in New York in 1868, and with Mrs. Stanton
and Matilda Joslyn Gage she has edited the History of Woman's Suffrage,
1881. Miss Anthony is a declared Agnostic.
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