John Assheton (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for '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 indic ...

1548) was an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 theologian, 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 is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...

in 1548. In his abjuration Assheton details his former objection to the

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

, 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 prior to his incarnation as Jesus. One of the relevant Bible passages is John 1 () where, in the Trinitarian interpretation, Christ is identified with a pre-existent divine hypostasi ...

, but not to the virgin birth. This then appears to be what would later be called a

Socinian Socinianism ( ) is a Nontrinitarian Christian belief system developed and co-founded during the Protestant Reformation by the Italian Renaissance humanists and theologians Lelio Sozzini and Fausto Sozzini, uncle and nephew, respectively. I ...

position, not an

Arian Arianism (, ) is a Christological doctrine which rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity and considers Jesus to be a creation of God, and therefore distinct from God. It is named after its major proponent, Arius (). It is considered he ...

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 former ...

. 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