Modern British Heresy

( Narrative ) Basic biography B. Dublin, 1772 (or 1771) and entered Trinity College, Dublin, 1792, expelled 1794.    Became an active member of the United Irish movement ( wiki ).   1797, evading arrest, emigrated to America. Settled in Boston, becoming editor of The Polar Star and Boston Daily Advertiser. Moved to New York, published The Time Piece (a newspaper) until arrested under the Sedition Law. Moved to Petersburg, Virginia and continued to write.  He died in Virginia in 1808, losing a duel with a French man named Coquebert. Bibliography 1) Books by Burk   World cat (110 works listed) The Trial of John Burk , of Trinity College , for Heresy and Blasphemy (Dublin: n.p., 1794 ); ... Burk, John. 2005. The trial of John Burk late of Trinity College, for heresy and blasphemy, before the board of senior fellows. To which is added, his defence, containing a vindication of his opinions, and a refutation of those inquisitorial charges, in which he shews that his...

  ( Bibliography ) John Burk was placed in Dublin University at a young age by an uncle , though this bare statement tells us little. He was tried for heresy at Dublin University in 1794 aged 22 or 23 (his birth date is not certain). The only account of Burk’s trial I have found is his self-published defence: The Trial of John Burk, Late of Trinity College, for heresy and Blasphemy, Before the Board of Senior Fellows. 1794 Page numbers relate to this text. (R eproduction, Making of Modern Law print edn, BiblioLife) Perhaps a fuller account (and from another perspective) survives somewhere in the archives of the University. I believe the first public accusation was made in the Belfast Journal or the Dublin Evening Post of 1794. _________________________________________ Trial On April 15 1794, a Saturday, one Dr Hall formally interrogated three undergraduates of the University. He wanted to know what  Burk had told them of his views and the arguments he had made.  Burk was...

I've been chasing a thread down a rabbit hole, to mix metaphors: burning Bibles in Ireland.  I have been trying to follow up my previous post,  Books condemned to be burned , by instancing episodes of Bible burning in Ireland. I am confident they're there (I recall seeing occasional newspaper accounts that I didn't log at the time) and, although I've found just one instance between 1789 and 1830 (see below),  I keep looking. There was a fair amount of burning in general in Ireland. In the rumbling sustained violence of English control, fire was a general and occasional weapon of the marginalised poor in the south of the country in particular. It could be a particular weapon against protestantising missionaries, not least the Hibernian Bible Society ( wiki ) and the linked Hibernian Sunday School Society. Protestant intent The Hibernian Bible Society ( established 1808)  promised much more than merely distributing scripture. Its prospectus - for a Protestant au...

There is a conundrum about condemning and burning books in the modern age (which, for these purposes, I date from with the Act of Toleration ( wiki ) in 1689):  What is the point of burning books in an age of internet and mass literacy?  And, the flip side:  In an time of mass printing, widespread literacy, freedom of worship, increasing diversity, global communications, what is the point of orthodoxy? This was my starting point for the whole heresy project. I am not sure I am any nearer an answer than when I began, though perhaps the questions have become a little clearer.  The purpose of condemning books Condemnation ( a global timeline ) has several functions. Practically, it allows and legitimates an authority to seize and destroy any copies of an offending text that they find. Condemnation declares a marker, a line in the sands of what an authority will tolerate. It is a warning: possession of a banned book - or even a book liable to be banned - is enough to ide...

I first became interested in church history at school, a couple of generations ago, and followed it up as a secondary interest at university.  However, I am embarrassed that it has only been over the last few days that I realised how uncritical I have been. I've always, I guess, preferred story over analysis. Whether that was instilled by my education or retained out of complacency I suppose is now unimportant. The story I've been looking to write recently is an account of instances of burning Bibles in Ireland in the nineteenth century.  In brief: the Authorised, King James, version so loved by Anglicans was heresy to Roman Catholics. Should a copy find its way into the hands of a Catholic Priest it was to be destroyed by burning. (I propose to explore this in more detail later.)    However, in searching for instances of bible-burning, what came to light was something of the nature of English colonialism in Ireland, its self-deceptions, and my own scotosis. Simplist...

Primary source is: Books Condemned to be Burnt, by James Anson Farrer [full text] Date Author Title Condemned by Outcome 1691 Bury, Arthur [ this blog] The Naked Gospel [ Full Text ] Parliament; Oxford University Ejected from post 1693, Dec 8 Freke, William A Brief but Clear Confutation of the Trinity House of Lords Fined £500, recanted 1696 Toland, John Christianity not mysterious [ Full text ] Irish Parliament Burnt by public hangman before the Parliament House Gate, Dublin, also in the open street before the Town House Fled, after arrest ordered, impoverished, continued to write 1697, March 17 James Drake Mr Bertie's Case, with some remarks on the Judgment therein given House of Lords Book burnt at Mercat Cross, Edinburgh Also prosecuted for later writings (1702, 1703 & 1705). 1698 Molyneux, William The case of Ireland's being bound by acts of Parliament in England stated [ full text ] Parliament Condemned as seditious and burnt by the public hangman 1700 Asgill, John ...