Everything about Peter Annet totally explained
Peter Annet (
1693–
18 January 1769) was an English
deist.
Annet is said to have been born at
Liverpool. A schoolmaster by profession, he became prominent owing to his attacks on orthodox theologians, as well as for his membership of a semi-theological debating society, the
Robin Hood Society, which met at the Robin Hood and Little John at
Butcher Row. Annet was very hostile to the clergy and to
scripture, being a thoroughgoing deist in every way. He distinguished himself by being extremely critical of the character and reputation of
King David and the
Apostle Paul. In 1739 he wrote and published a pamphlet,
Judging for Ourselves, or Freethinking the Great Duty of Religion, a strong criticism of
Christianity. For writing this and similar pamphlets, he lost his teaching position.
To him has also been attributed a work called
A History of the Man after God's own Heart (1761). King
George II was insulted by a current comparison with King David. The book is said to have inspired
Voltaire's
Saul. It is also attributed to one John Noorthouck (Noorthook).
In 1763 he was condemned for blasphemous
libel in his paper called the
Free Inquirer. After his release he kept a small school in
Lambeth, one of his pupils being
James Stephen (1758-1832), who became master in
Chancery. At age 68, Annet was sentenced to the
pillory and a year's hard labor. He died on
18 January 1769.
When the Christian apologists substituted for the argument from miracles the argument from personal witness and the credibility of
Biblical evidence, Annet, in his
Resurrection of Jesus (1744), assailed the validity of such evidence, and first advanced the hypothesis of the illusory death of
Jesus, suggesting also that possibly
Paul should be regarded as the founder of a new religion. In
Supernaturals Examined (1747) Annet roundly denies the possibility of miracles.
Annet stands between the earlier philosophic deists and the later propagandists of
Thomas Paine's school, and seems to have been the first freethought lecturer (
J. M. Robertson); his essays,
A Collection of the Tracts of a certain Free Enquirer, are forcible but lack refinement. He invented a system of shorthand (2nd ed., with a copy of verses by
Joseph Priestley).
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