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Thomas White, in the quatercentenary of his birth, is due for historical rehabilitation. English Catholic priest, philosopher, theologian, and scientist, he was a renowned and notorious figure in his own day; and, though long forgot ten, his work exemplifies aspects of major current concern to historians of ideas: in particular, the significance of the newly-revived sceptical philosophy; the complexity ofthe transition from scholasticism to the new philosophy; and the whole role of"minor", non-canonical figures in the historyofthought. White's writings embrace theology, politics, and natural philosophy, or science'; and in all these three areas, his work, after centuries of comparative neglect, has slowly been resurfacing. His theological significance received intermittent recognition through the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early-twentieth centuries; but more recently his great importance as leader of a whole "Blackloist" faction of English Catholics has become increasingly clear. Condemned by co-religionists in his own time as a dangerous heretic, he has been assessed by modem scholars as an anticipator of twentieth-century trends in Catholic theology, and even as "probably, after John Henry Newman, the most original thinker as yet producedby modem English Catholicism."2 Blackloism implied not only a theological, but also a political position; and that position was clarified and publicised by White in his single political treatise, The Grounds of Obedience and Government, published in the mid 1650s. His provocative stance was widely misunderstood and misinterpreted, and was soon anyway rendered untenable by the restoration of the monarchy.
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"COVETOUS OF TRUTH"
ARCIllVES INTERNATIONALES D'IllSTOIRE DES IDEES INTERNATIONAL ARCIllVES OF THE IllSTORY OF IDEAS
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BEVERLEY C. SOUTHGATE "COVETOUS OF TRUTH" THE LIFE AND WORK OF THOMAS WHITE, 1593-1676
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Washington University, St. Louis and UCLA) Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Paris); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); A. Gabbey (New York); T. Gregory (Rome); S. Hutton (University of Hertfordshire); J.D. North (Groningen); M.J. Petry (Rotterdam); J. Popkin (Lexington) Advisory Editorial Board: J. Aubin (Paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); H. de la Fontaine Verwey (Amsterdam); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University); W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia University); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris); A. Lossky (Los Angeles); J. Malarczyk (Lublin); E. de Olaso (C.I.F. Buenos Aires); J. Orcibal (Paris); Wolfgang Rod (Miinchen); G. Rousseau (Los Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers University, N.J.); J.P. Schobinger (Ziirich); J. Tans (Groningen)
"COVETOUS OF TRUTH" The Life and Work a/Thomas White, 1593-1676
BEVERLEY C. SOUTHGATE University of Hertfordshire. U.K.
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Southgate. BeverIey C. Covetous of truth : ,he Iife and work of Thomas White. 1593-1676 / by BeverIey C. Southgate. p. cm. Includes bibIiographical references and index. ISBN 978-94-010-4817-0 ISBN 978-94-011-1850-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-011-1850-7 1. White. Thomas. 1593-1676. 1. TitIe. B1299.W454S68 1993 192--dc20 [Bl 92-26439 ISBN 978-94-010-4817-0
Printed on acid-free paper
AII Rights Reserved © 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1993 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover Ist edition 1993 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
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