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Biddle (JOHN father of the modern)

JOHN, father of the modern Unitarians, born in Wotton-under- Edge, in Gloucestershire, in 1615; was educated at Oxford, and became master of a free school at Gloucester. He was repeatedly imprisoned for his anti-Trinitarian vie views. A general act of oblivion, in 1652, restored him to liberty, when he immediately disseminated his opinions both by preaching and by the publication of his "Twofold Scripture Catechism." He was again imprisoned, and the law of 1648, decreeing death for those denying the Trinity, was put in operation against him. Cromwell banished him to St. Mary's Castle, Scilly, and assigned him 100 crowns annually.

Here he remained three years, until the Protector liberated him in 1658. He then continued to preach his opinions till the death of Cromwell, and also after the Restoration, when he was committed to jail in 1662, and died a few months after. He wrote "Twelve Arguments Against the Deity of the Holy Spirit," etc.