In 1624 Edward Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, publishes De Veritate in Paris: the founding text of English deism. Herbert argues that religion rests on five common notions inscribed by God in every mind, that truth is known by universal consent, and that revelation adds nothing necessary to what reason already holds.
Tagged: Deism
The Event
- Date
- 1624 (exact)
- Era
- English Beginnings; Standard periodization of deist history
- Location
- Paris; today Paris, France
- Traditions
- Deism
- Streams
- Deism
- Key figures
- Edward Herbert, Lord Herbert of Cherbury
- Key texts
- De Veritate
Primary Sources
- Herbert of Cherbury, Edward. De Veritate. Paris, 1624.
Secondary Sources
- Barnett, S. J. The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2003.
- Byrne, Peter. Natural Religion and the Nature of Religion: The Legacy of Deism. London: Routledge, 1989.
- Walters, Kerry S. The American Deists: Voices of Reason and Dissent in the Early Republic. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
Provenance: HIST-1359; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-30.
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World View
Deism
Deism holds that reason and nature reveal one Creator who made the world and its laws, then left it to run without miracles or special revelation.