Great Tew Circle

The Great Tew Circle was a group of clerics and literary figures who gathered in the 1630s at the manor house of Great Tew, Oxfordshire in southern England, and in London.Lord Clarendon referred to the Circle as "A college situate in a purer air", referring to its pursuit of truth away from the partisan passions of the town. The quote is referenced by John Buchan in his story "Fullcircle", though he misquotes it as "clearer air". The house was the property of the noble Cary family, and the circle was brought together by Lucius Cary, who became 2nd Viscount Falkland on the death of his father in 1633. The most prominent of those taking part was Edward Hyde, the future 1st Earl of Clarendon, who after 1660 would become known as a leading statesman, and then a historian.

In the vexed religious climate of the time, the Circle was heterodox, inclining to sympathy with Socinianism. The favoured approach of some of those involved has been defined as "Arminian humanism", and in any case opposed to rigid Calvinism; this approach fitted with political views that were essentially royalist. The central religious figure of the Circle was William Chillingworth. Falkland himself had a Catholic convert, Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland, for his mother, and found the tolerant approach of Erasmus attractive.

Major influences on the thinking of the circle were Hugo Grotius, and Richard Hooker because of the place he made for the use of reason in Biblical interpretation and church polity. These writers formed part of the broader Christian humanist tradition of Jacobus Acontius, George Cassander, Sebastian Castellio, Bernardino Ochino and Faustus Socinus. The anti-patristic views of Jean Daillé were also significant. According to the writings of Hyde (as Lord Clarendon), the gatherings and discussions themselves were modelled on those of Cicero and Erasmus, with guests being welcome to differ on points of view. Discourse also took place around the dinner table, with Clarendon likening the "Convivium Philosophicum or Convivium Theologicum ("philosophical-" or "theological feast") to Erasmus's Convivium Religiosum ("godly feast")."

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