Edward Wightman

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Edward Wightman : biography

c.1580? – 11 April 1612

James I came to the English throne in 1603, “thinking himself a competent judge of religious questions and disposed to take seriously his title of ‘Defender of the Faith’”.Earl Morse Wilbur, A History of Unitarianism, Harvard, 1945, p 177. Since 1607 he had been engaged in a battle of books with Roman Catholic apologists over the Oath of Allegiance, both personally and by encouraging others to write in his defence. “One of the central planks of the king’s case was the preservation of his catholic orthodoxy through his adherence to the three great creeds of the church, the Apostles’, the Nicene and the Athanasian.”F. Shriver, Orthodoxy and Diplomacy: James I and the Vorstius Affair, ante, lxxxv, 1970, pp. 453–4; James VI and I, The Workes of the Most High and Mightie Prince, Iames by the Grace of God, King of Great Britaine, London, 1616, p. 302.

Wightman was fully aware of the king’s firmly orthodox stance, yet he set about to combat both his State and Church. Of the handful of fragments of his defence treatise that have survived, he refers to the doctrine and “heresies of the Nicolaitan;… most of all hated and abhorred of God himself … the common received faith contained in those three inventions of man, commonly called the Three Creeds … the [Apostles’], Nicene and Athanasius Creed, which faith within these 1600 years past hath prevailed in the world.”Bodleian Library, ms Ashmole, A True Relation of the Commissions and Warrants for the Condemnation and Burning of Bartholomew Legate and Thomas Withman, 1521 B, 7, 1a–1b, London, 1651, p. 8.

Wightman had by now isolated himself from all orthodox groups, calling into question many tenets of orthodox belief, arguing “that the baptizing of infants is an abominable custom … the practice of the Sacraments as they are now used in the Church of England are according to Christ his Institution … [and affirming that] only the sacrament of baptism [is] to be administered in water to converts of sufficient age of understanding converted from infidelity to the faith”.Bodleian Library, ms Ashmole, A True Relation of the Commissions and Warrants for the Condemnation and Burning of Bartholomew Legate and Thomas Withman, London, 1651, pp. 8–9, 23.

But what finally spelled his end was his public rejection of Trinitarianism. It was presumably on these points that he so vehemently rejected the formulae of the Nicene Creed of 325 and the subsequent ‘Athanasius’ Creed of 381.Both of the Creeds had been structured primarily as responses to Arian denials of the Trinity. And like the Arians of the 4th century, Wightman flatly denied them. He claimed that the doctrine of the Trinity was a total fabrication, stating that Christ was only a man “and a mere Creature and not both God and man in one person… [Although this did not mean that Christ was a man like all others but] only a perfect man without sin.”All quotes, Bodleian Library, ms Ashmole, A True Relation of the Commissions, p 5. King James was by now more set than ever in securing the execution of Wightman, since in the intervening years he had launched a dual campaign against heresy at home and abroad.

Summary of charges by the Commission

Edward Wightman was convicted of publicly attacking Christianity while promoting the following views:

  1. That there is no Trinity;
  2. That Jesus Christ was not God;
  3. That Jesus Christ was a mere man;
  4. That Christ was never incarnate and did not fulfill the promises of salvation;
  5. That the three creeds of the apostolic church were lies;
  6. That he, Edward Wightman, was the promised Messiah of the Old Testament;
  7. That he was the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete;
  8. That to deny that he was divine was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, worthy of everlasting death;
  9. That Jesus Christ is dead and that there is no punishment for sinners in the afterlife;
  10. That he, Edward Wightman, is literally the prophet Elijah;
  11. That historic baptism of the church is wickedness;
  12. That the Lord’s Supper (Communion) is evil;
  13. That God ordained him Saviour of the world.Cobbet’s.