Tindal, Matthew (tĭnˈdəl) [key], c.1655–1733, English deist. For
a short time in the reign of James II he was a Roman Catholic,
but in 1688 he returned to the Church of England. The first of
his published writings to excite attention was The Rights of the
Christian Church Asserted (1706), a defense of Erastianism; it
was proscribed by Parliament. His Defence of the Rights of the
Christian Church (1709) reiterated his position and was
similarly condemned. Tindal's Christianity as Old as the
Creation (1730), in which he set forth his rationalistic views,
has been called the bible of deism. See L. Stephen, History of
English Thought in the Eighteenth Century (3d ed. 1902). The
Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012,
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