latitudinarian

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • adj latitudinarian unwilling to accept authority or dogma (especially in religion)
    • n latitudinarian a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct)
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Latitudinarian (Eng. Eccl. Hist) A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II., who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed. "They were called “men of latitude;” and upon this, men of narrow thoughts fastened upon them the name of latitudinarians ."
    • Latitudinarian Indifferent to a strict application of any standard of belief or opinion; hence, deviating more or less widely from such standard; lax in doctrine; as, latitudinarian divines; latitudinarian theology. "Latitudinarian sentiments upon religious subjects."
    • Latitudinarian Lax in moral or religious principles.
    • Latitudinarian Not restrained; not confined by precise limits.
    • Latitudinarian (Theol) One who departs in opinion from the strict principles of orthodoxy.
    • Latitudinarian One who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • latitudinarian Embracing a wide circle or range; having free scope; not conforming to a strict code of morals; roving; libertine.
    • latitudinarian Characterized by latitude or independence of thought, or by forbearance from strict insistence upon the usual standards of belief or opinion; especially, not rigidly strict in religious principles or views; tolerant of free-thinking or heresy: as, latitudinarian opinions or doctrines. The word is generally used opprobriously. It is specifically applied in church history to certain Episcopal divines of the seventeenth century (see below), but in later time to all who regard specific creeds, methods of church government, and forms of worship with comparative indifference.
    • n latitudinarian In. Eng. church hist., one of a school of Episcopal divines who in the seventeenth century strove to unito the dissenters with the Episcopal Church by insisting only on those doctrines which were held in common by both, and who, while they maintained the wisdom of the episcopal form of government and ritual, denied their divine origin and authority.
    • n latitudinarian Hence, in later times, one who regards with comparative indifference specific creeds, methods of church government, and forms of public worship: generally used opprobriously.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • Latitudinarian broad or liberal, esp. in religious belief: lax
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Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Cf. F. latitudinaire,
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Fr.,—L. latitudo, -inis—latus, broad.

Usage

In literature:

They carried the principle of analogical deduction to dangerous lengths in order to satisfy the latitudinarianism of the Khalif.
"The Faith of Islam" by Edward Sell
But latitudinarianism loosens the elementary principles of theology.
"Short Studies on Great Subjects" by James Anthony Froude
Papist and sceptic, mystic and ceremonialist, latitudinarian and Presbyterian, all were hostile.
"History of the English People, Volume VI (of 8)" by John Richard Green
Let him but see the absurdities of the latitudinarian principle, when carried out, and he is likely to be still more opposed to it.
"Loss and Gain" by John Henry Newman
The Latitudinarian was at first coldly received at Lambeth: the brother-in-law of Cromwell was not acceptable at Whitehall.
"The Life and Times of John Wilkins" by Patrick A. Wright-Henderson
You are too latitudinarian.
"Daisy" by Elizabeth Wetherell
Trimmer advocated religious education against the latitudinarian views of Joseph Lancaster.
"Books and Authors" by Anonymous
With all these latitudinarian convictions, however, I was thoroughly an Establishment man.
"My Schools and Schoolmasters" by Hugh Miller
As regards all such matters, Binney is a latitudinarian.
"The London Pulpit" by J. Ewing Ritchie
According to the most latitudinarian notions, this was the extent of the remedy in the hands of Congress.
"Discussion on American Slavery" by George Thompson
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In news:

Can You Spell " Latitudinarian .".
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Related words