Thomas Coleman
1598–1646
"Rabbi Coleman"; Hebraist co-leader of the Erastian wing; died mid-debate.
Departs from the Confession on Polity: Erastian not Presbyterian-Jure-Divino · Magistrate's Role: Erastian-Magistrate-Over-Church not Custos-Utriusque-Tabulae (1646)
Biography
Of Magdalen Hall Oxford, then Lincolnshire ministries — Blyton, Lincoln, and finally St Peter Cornhill in London from 1645. Called 'Rabbi Coleman' by contemporaries for his Hebrew learning, Coleman was the principal ministerial Erastian at the Assembly alongside John Lightfoot, and the most direct opponent of Gillespie's jure-divino case. He preached the famous Erastian sermon before the House of Commons on 30 July 1645 (Hopes Deferred and Dashed, published as A Brotherly Examination Re-examined) advocating civil supremacy in ecclesiastical jurisdiction — drawing Gillespie's Aaron's Rod Blossoming (1646) in devastating reply. He died on 30 March 1646, mid-debate, two months before the Confession's final approval — leaving Lightfoot as the sole ministerial Erastian voice.
Principal works
- A Brotherly Examination Re-examined (1645)
Erastian party
The Erastians held that the power of church censures — above all excommunication — belonged ultimately to the civil magistrate rather than to independent church courts. Thomas Coleman and John Lightfoot, with the lay civilian John Selden, were its chief voices; the question was among the most bitterly fought at the Assembly.
Party in 1 crux
Ontology placement
· 2 overrides of 35
Cite this divine
Study Reformed, “Thomas Coleman” (Divine), Westminster Standards Atlas, version 79a5f9880ac1, https://studyreformed.com/atlas/cite/persona/thomas-coleman/.
Ontology version 79a5f9880ac1 — the state of the Atlas you are reading, so a citation stays checkable when the ontology is revised.