John Toland (1670 - 1722) was the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest born in the village of
Ardagh[?],
Donegal,
Ireland. His book
Christianity not Mysterious[?] 1696 was burnt by the public hangman in
Dublin. He was the first person called a
freethinker[?] (by Bishop
Berkeley) and went on to write over a hundred books, and also to translate
Giordano Bruno's
The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast. In many ways he continued Bruno's pantheistic atheism as can be seen in his
Pantheisticon published in 1720, shortly before his death.
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