The Story Of John Biddle

Father of English Unitarianism.1615‑1662

What is a Unitarian? There is one GOD, and GOD is Love and they Judge God to be one Essence, one person and one substance. Faithful to this belief, Unitarians reject all notion of a plurality within the divine Godhead. Indeed, they insist that this is contrary to the word of God.

In the Scriptures they find no mention of the Word Trinity. On the contrary, they read that the "Father is greater than the Son" and they believe that the holy spirit is not a separate person, but merely a power exercised by God, or a gift donated by him.

"In the sacred scriptures, Christ is more clearly distinguished from God. Since God is the Father who sends, gives, anoints, sanctifies and rewards, whereas Christ is the Son who is sent, receives, is anointed, sanctified and rewarded. They recognize, nevertheless, that Christ is at one with God on account of a mutual consensus of will and purpose. But at the same time, they agree that we also are at one with him and with God his father" (quoted from the Beliefs, History and present position of the Unitarians in England).

This belief was presented in the 1600s by John Biddle (born 1615 in Wotton‑under‑Edge, Gloucestershire), for this stance he was imprisoned and so became known as the Father of English Unitarianism.

John Biddle’s father died when he was very young, and he was raised by his widowed mother. Fortunately for John there was a local Grammar School for him to attend and he was able to obtain a scholarship, which enabled him to receive the basics of a classical education. He was a very intelligent student. He is credited with the translation of Virgil’s Bucolics (Ancient Roman Poet 70‑19 BC) as well as the first two Satires of Juvenal (Satirical Roman Poet 2nd Century AD) while he was still at school. This attracted the attention of Lord Berkeley who helped him with a £10 a year scholarship.

Biddle was sent to Oxford in the year 1634 and was a student at Magdalen Hall, where he graduated with a master’s degree in 1641. He was recommended by his University tutors for the position of master at the free Crypt School which was accepted by the Mayor and Council of Gloucester. In 1644 he drafted what he called the "Twelve Arguments Drawn out of Scripture: Wherein the commonly‑received Opinion touching the Deity of the Holy Spirit, is clearly and fully refuted" and, as stated in the Introduction to this article, these 12 articles can be summed up as a belief in one God, with the rejection of the Holy Spirit as a person (Spirit) coequal to God, and that Christ was a separate person (Spirit) and not coequal to God the Father (Supreme Being).

This was a bombshell! What was most remarkable was that John Biddle had gained this knowledge from no other source than God’s word. There were others before him that also had the same ideas, such as Laelius Socinus (1525‑1562). At the time of his study into the Trinity John had not even heard of him. The advice he gave to those who wanted to find the truth was "That they should read God’s word and only God’s word for at least twelve months and that they, like him, would come to similar conclusions about the trinity and other doctrines." He most certainly was guided by the Holy Spirit in his search for the truth.

At first Biddle only showed this tract to his friends, as he realized the danger he was exposing himself to if the Church and State found out and one of his close friends reported him to the Magistrates. His friends knew how brilliant a scholar he was, well versed in the Scriptures. He knew the New Testament by heart, except for the last few Chapters of Revelation (both in English and Greek). This did not help him in front of the Magistrates who viewed these ideas on the Trinity as heresy. Due to the fear of man at this time he rewrote these views and watered them down to please the Magistrates, who reluctantly accepted it and released him. He returned to his teaching duties as schoolmaster. But this did not last long as he could not keep silent about God’s word. So, on the 23 October 1645 he was again dismissed from his teaching post, as he had now overcome his fear of man, and with his faith strengthened he again had to defend it before the Magistrates.

This time he ended up in jail and he would have stayed there if it was not for a very influential friend who stood bond for him and he was released. Six months later after appearing before Parliament he was again imprisoned. This time his friends were unable to help him, he spent the next three years under the restraint of an officer of the house (Parliament).

On this instance his confinement was not severe, and after Parliament had King Charles I beheaded and Oliver Cromwell was in power as Lord Protector, Biddle was released and took up a post as a preacher in Staffordshire. But Biddle could not keep quiet about what the Bible taught. In 1654 he released more tracts in which he had this to say about the established church, "Composed for their sakes that would fain to be mere Christians and not of this or that sect, inasmuch as all have more or less, departed from the simplicity and truth of the scriptures." This caused Parliament to order these new tracts to be burnt, once again Biddle was back in prison.

In 1648 it was demanded that he be hanged, but Cromwell again intervened and exiled him to the Isles of Scilly. In 1651 he was allowed to return to England. After Cromwell died (1658) John Biddle was again persecuted; he was committed to Newgate Prison as a debtor, unable to pay a £200 fine levied on him for his preaching, this was in 1662. He died on 22 September 1662 at the age of only 47, from gaol (jail) fever.

Thus, he gave birth to a revolution whose reverberations are still being felt over 350 years later, he has no marked grave, no statue, no record of his life in Gloucester. John Biddle may justly be termed Gloucester’s forgotten son.

People’s Paper, Australia