The English Deists and the Traité

Abstract

As is known, Margaret Jacob in her book The radical Enlightenment has suggested a link between John Toland and the Traite des trois imposteurs—in fact, contemporaries saw some connection too. The Reponse a la Dissertation de M. de La Monnoye describes the presumed ‘discovery’ of the Traite,found together with the Spaccio della bestia trionfante by Bruno, and remarks ‘I believe it is the same piece the English version of which Toland cause to be printed some years ago, and which carried so high a price.’1 In fact, Toland had the text published because he believed it to be the ancient book on the three impostors. It seems that the author of the Reponse was familiar with certain of Toland’s ideas. I shall not dwell upon the relationship between the Traite and the ideas of the English Deists; these are the subject of a paper by Justin Champion elsewhere in this volume. I shall instead restrict myself to an investigation of the environment in which the Traite was published. Its connection with Toland should not be studied in isolation, but as part of the wider intellectual environment which was in close contact with the general English Deist movement. Toland’s possible involvement should be viewed against this background—this will be our subject here.