Chillingworth, William

CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM. - English Protestant theologian and the principal proponent of Latitudinarianism, b. at Oxford on 6 Oct. 1602, d. at Chichester (Sussex) on 30 Jan. 1644. As soon as he had finished his studies in his native city he converted to the Catholic religion, which he then abandoned (1634) to return to the bosom of Protestantism. He concerned himself competently with mathematics, poetry and especially theology.

He is known above all for the work The religion of protestants a safe way of salvation (Oxford 1638). In it C. turns against the Jesuit Matthias Wilson (d. 1656) and sets out his Latitudinarianism. Starting from the distinction between what is essential and what is not, the author reduces Christianity to the profession of a few fundamental truths of a predominantly practical order, tolerating disagreement on everything else. The Latitudinarians, so called by their adversaries, who considered them supporters of the broad way, not only failed to achieve the aim of their movement, which was to eliminate the interminable controversies and grave divergences existing among the various Protestant sects, but fell into religious indifferentism, for having been unable to bring about agreement even with regard to the same fundamental truths. Latitudinarianism thus prepared the way for the Broad Church Party, into which it later merged.

Emanuele Chietini