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John Assheton (
fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...
1548) was an
Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Euro ...
priest at "Shiltelington" (perhaps Shillington, Bedfordshire) who is the first recorded English anti-Trinitarian. Almost nothing is known about Assheton except the record of recantation to
Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry' ...
in 1548. In his abjuration Assheton details his former objection to the
Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God th ...
, to the person and personality of the Holy Spirit, to the
pre-existence of Christ The pre-existence of Christ asserts the existence of Christ before his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasis (substantive ...
, but not to the virgin birth. This then appears to be what would later be called a
Socinian Socinianism () is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italians, Italian Christian theology, theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) an ...
position, not an
Arian Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God ...
or fully Unitarian one. Assheton has been identified as the subject of the 1549 work ''The Fal of the late Arrian'' by the Catholic historian John Proctor, at least tentatively, by historians including
Diarmaid MacCulloch Diarmaid Ninian John MacCulloch (; born 31 October 1951) is an English academic and historian, specialising in ecclesiastical history and the history of Christianity. Since 1995, he has been a fellow of St Cross College, Oxford; he was forme ...
. MacCulloch also describes Assheton (Ashton) as a Cambridge man, with connections to nobility as a chaplain.Diarmaid MacCulloch (1996), ''Thomas Cranmer'', p. 407.


References

Antitrinitarians 16th-century English Anglican priests Year of death unknown Year of birth unknown {{UK-reli-bio-stub