Note 208 — Chapter XL · A.D. 1700-1800. THE JEWS IN ENGLAND.

John Toland, as he was called, though his true baptismal names were James Julius, was born in Londonderry in 1669. His parents were Roman Catholics, but he seems early to have rejected Romish teaching. He studied successively at Glasgow, Leyden, and Oxford. At the last-named university he seems to have obtained the reputation of a freethinker; and his book, Christianity not Mysterious, excited a ferment which there is little or nothing to justify. It was condemned by the Irish Parliament, and burnt by the hangman. Leland ranks him among Deistical writers; but he hardly seems to deserve, and is certainly not worth, Leland’s censures.