John Toland

John Toland (November 30, 1670 - March 11, 1722) was the illegitimate son of a Catholic priest born in the village of Ardagh, Donegal, Ireland. His book Christianity Not Mysterious 1696 was burnt by the public hangman in Dublin. He was the first person called a freethinker (by Bishop Berkeley) and went on to write over a hundred books, and also to translate Giordano Bruno's The Expulsion of the Triumphant Beast. In many ways he continued Bruno's pantheistic atheism as can be seen in his Pantheisticon published in 1720, shortly before his death.