A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations

Amaury or Amalric de Chartres, a heretic of the thirteenth century, was a native of Bene, near Chartres, and lived at Paris, where he gave lessons in logic. In a work bearing th...

Conway (Moncure Daniel), author, b. in Fredericksburg, Stafford co. Virginia, 17 March, 1832. He entered the Methodist ministry '50, but changing his convictions through the inf...

Buchanan (George), Scotch historian and scholar, b. Killearn, Feb. 1506. Evincing an early love of study, he was sent to Paris at the age of fourteen. He returned to Scotland an...

Bender (Wilhelm), German Rationalist, professor of theology at Bonn, b. 15 Jan. 1845, who created a sensation at the Luther centenary, 1883, by declaring that the work of the Re...

Parfait (Paul), son of the foregoing, b. Paris, 1841. Author of L'Arsenal de la Dévotion, '76, Notes to serve for a history of superstition, and a supplement Le Dossier des Péle...

Flourens (Marie Jean Pierre), French scientist, b. near Béziers, 15 April, 1794. In 1828 he was admitted into the Academy of Sciences, after having published a work on the nervo...

Thomson (James), Pessimistic poet, b. Port Glasgow, 23 Nov. 1834. Educated at the Caledonian Asylum, London, he became a schoolmaster in the army, where he met Mr. Bradlaugh, wh...

Rawson (Albert Leighton) LL.D. American traveller and author, b. Chester, Vermont 15 Oct. 1829. After studying law, theology, and art, he made four visits to the East, and made...

Davenport (Allen), social reformer, b. 1773. He contributed to Carlile's Republican; wrote an account of the Life, Writings and Principles of Thomas Spence, the reformer (1826);...

Inman (Thomas), B.A., physician and archæologist, b. 1820. Educated at London University, he settled at Liverpool, being connected with the well-known shipping family of that po...

Vico (Giovanni Battista), Italian philosopher, b. Naples 1668. He became Professor of Rhetoric in the University of that city, and published a New Science of the Common Nature o...

Newman (Francis William) brother of Cardinal Newman, b. London 1805. Educated at Oxford, he was elected to a fellowship at Balliol College '26, but resigned in '30, being unable...

Bailey (James Napier), Socialist, edited the Model Republic, 1843, the Torch, and the Monthly Messenger. He published Gehenna: its Monarch and Inhabitants; Sophistry Unmasked, a...

Holbach (Paul Heinrich Dietrich von) Baron, b. Heidelsheim Jan. 1723. Brought up at Paris where he spent most of his life. Rich and generous he was the patron of the Encyclopædi...

Ronge (Johannes), German religious reformer, b. Bischopwalde (Silesia), 16 Oct. 1813. He entered the seminary of Breslau, and became a Catholic priest in '40. His liberal views...

Poey (Andrés), Cuban meteorologist and Positivist of French and Spanish descent, b. Havana, 1826. Wrote in the Modern Thinker, and is author of many scientific memoirs and a pop...

Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von), Germany's greatest poet, b. Frankfort-on-Main, 28 Aug. 1749. He records that early in his seventh year (1 Nov. 1758) the great Lisbon earthquake fi...

Milliere (Jean Baptiste), Socialist, b. of poor parents, Lamarche (Côte d'Or), 13 Dec. 1817. He became an advocate, and founded the Proletaire at Clermont Ferrand. For writing R...

Labanca (Baldassarre), professor of moral philosophy in the University of Pisa, b. Agnone, 1829. He took part in the national movement of '48, and in '51 was imprisoned and afte...

Galton (Francis), grandson of Erasmus Darwin, was born in 1822. Educated at Birmingham, he studied medicine at King's College, London, and graduated at Cambridge, '24. In '48 an...

Spencer (Herbert), English philosopher, b. Derby, 1820. He was articled to a civil engineer, but drifted into literature. He wrote in the Westminster Review, and at the house of...

Lennstrand (Viktor E.), Swedish writer and orator, b. Gefle, 30 Jan. 1861. Educated at Upsala University. Founded the Swedish Utilitarian Society, March '88, and in May was sent...

Chies y Gomez (Ramon), Spanish Freethinker, b. Medina de Pomar, Burgos, 13 Oct. 1845. His father, a distinguished Republican, educated him without religion. In '65 Chies went to...

Elliotson (John, M.D., F.R.S.), an eminent medical man, b. London, 1791. He became physician at St. Thomas's Hospital in 1822, and made many contributions to medical science. By...

Mandeville (Bernhard), b. Dort. 1670. He studied medicine, was made a doctor in Holland, and emigrated to London. In 1705 he published a poetical satire, The Grumbling Hive, or...

Carducci (Giosuè), Italian poet and Professor of Italian Literature at the University of Bologna, b. Pietrasantra, in the province of Lucca, 27 July, 1836. As early as '49 he cr...

John Stuart Mill in his "Autobiography" declares with truth that "the world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those most disti...

Wundt (Wilhelm Max), German scientist, b. Neckaran (Baden), 16 Aug. 1832. His father was a clergyman. He studied medicine at Tübingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin, and became profess...

Dippel (Johann Konrad), German alchemist and physician, b. 10 Aug. 1672, at Frankenstein, near Darmstadt. His Papismus vapulans Protestantium (1698) drew on him the wrath of the...

Bodin (Jean), French political writer, b. Angers 1530. He studied at Toulouse and is said to have been a monk but turned to the law, and became secretary to the Duc d'Alençon. H...

Schneeberger (F. J.), Austrian writer, b. Vienna, 7 Sept, 1827. Has written some popular novels under the name of "Arthur Storch," and was one of the founders of the German Free...

Hartogh Heys van Zouteveen (Dr. Herman), a learned Dutch writer, b. Delft 13 Feb. 1841. He studied law and natural philosophy at Leyden, and graduated doctor of law in '64 and d...

Gorani (Giuseppe), count, b. Milan, 1744. He was intimate with Beccaria, D'Holbach, and Diderot. He wrote a treatise on Despotism, published anonymously, 1770; defended the Fren...