Lodowicke Muggleton

Lodowicke Muggleton (1609–1698) was an English religious thinker who gave his name to Muggletonianism, a Protestant sect which was always small, but survived until the death of its last follower in 1979. He spent his working life as a journeyman tailor in the City of London and was imprisoned twice for his beliefs. He held opinions hostile to all forms of philosophical reason, and had received only a basic education. He encouraged quietism and free-thought amongst his followers whose beliefs were predestinarian in a manner that was distinct from Calvinism. Near the close of his long life, Muggleton wrote his spiritual autobiography which was published posthumously.^[1]

^ The Acts of the Witnesses was edited by Thomas Tomkinson, first published in 1699 and further reprinted in 1764. The text is reproduced in T. L. Underwood The Acts of the Witnesses New York: Oxford University Press (1999). The autobiography is self-consciously styled after The Acts of the Apostles to be found in the Christian New Testament. It may be wise to bear a doctrinal purpose in mind and not to treat the work as the chatty reminiscences of an old man.

[1] The Acts of the Witnesses was edited by Thomas Tomkinson, first published in 1699 and further reprinted in 1764. The text is reproduced in T. L. Underwood The Acts of the Witnesses New York: Oxford University Press (1999). The autobiography is self-consciously styled after The Acts of the Apostles to be found in the Christian New Testament. It may be wise to bear a doctrinal purpose in mind and not to treat the work as the chatty reminiscences of an old man.

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