Leonard Busher
Leonard Busher (fl. 1614) was an English pioneer writer on
Life
Busher was apparently a Londoner who spent some time in
Works
Busher's only published work was entitled Religious Peace; or, a Plea for Liberty of Conscience, long since presented to King James and the High Court of Parliament then sitting, by L. B., Citizen of London, and printed in the year 1614; no copy of this 1614 edition is known. His treatise advocates religious toleration, freedom to print, and to speak one’s mind about religion. It also calls for the resettlement of the Jews into England, although professor of Judaic studies, Mel Scult points out that this is motivated by the desire to convert them to Christianity.
A reprint of the 1646 edition, with an historical introduction by Edward Bean Underhill, was issued by the Hanserd Knollys Society in 1846.[2] According to David Masson, Busher's book ‘is certainly the earliest known publication in which full liberty of conscience is openly advocated’ (Masson, Milton, iii.102). It has been suggested that James I was influenced by it when he declared to parliament in 1614, ‘No state can evidence that any religion or heresy was ever extirpated by the sword or by violence, nor have I ever judged it a way of planting the truth.’
References
- ^ Scult, Mel (1978). Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, Up to the Mid Nineteenth Century. Brill Archive. P.19. "Busher believed that Jews ‘…shall inhabit and dwell under his Majesty’s dominion, to the great profit of his realms and the furtherance in their faith (i.e. their conversion)… for Christ hath commanded to teach all nations and they (i.e. the Jews) are the first.’"
- ^ E. B. Underhill; Leonard Busher (1846). Tracts on Liberty of Conscience. Hanserd Knollys Society. pp. 1–.
- Attribution
Lee, Sidney, ed. (1901). . Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
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