John Toland

John Toland
The only known image of Toland
Born	(1670-11-30)30 November 1670 Ardagh, County Donegal, Ireland
Died	11 March 1722(1722-03-11) (aged 51) London, Great Britain
Other names	Janus Junius Toland, Seán Ó Tuathaláin, Eoghan na leabhar (John of the books)
Era	Age of Enlightenment
Region	British philosophy
Main interests	liberty, theology, physics
Notable ideas	Pantheism
Influences John Locke

John Toland (30 November 1670 – 11 March 1722) was an Irish-born rationalist philosopher and freethinker, and occasional satirist, who wrote numerous books and pamphlets on political philosophy and philosophy of religion, which are early expressions of the philosophy of the Age of Enlightenment. Born in Ireland, he was educated at the universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leiden and Oxford and was influenced by the philosophy of John Locke.

Very little is known of Toland's early life. He was born in Ardagh on the Inishowen Peninsula, a predominantly Catholic and Irish-speaking region in northwestern Ireland. His parents are unknown. He would later write that he had been baptised Janus Junius, a play on his name that recalled both the Roman two-faced god Janus and Junius Brutus, reputed founder of the Roman republic. According to his biographer Pierre des Maizeaux, he adopted the name John as a schoolboy with the encouragement of his school teacher.

Having formally converted from Catholicism to Protestantism at the age of 16, Toland got a scholarship to study theology at the University of Glasgow. In 1690, at age 19, the University of Edinburgh conferred a master's degree on him. He then got a scholarship to spend two years studying at University of Leiden in Holland, and subsequently nearly two years at Oxford in England (1694–95). The Leiden scholarship had been provided by wealthy English Dissenters, who hoped Toland would go on to become a minister for Dissenters.