John Fransham, the Norwich Polytheist: An English Pagan In The Eighteenth Century

Abstract

This article seeks to shed new light on an unresolved question in modern religious history: how did classical traditions of paganism come to be revived in modern times in the form of neo-paganism? It seeks to contribute to addressing this question by identifying a hitherto overlooked individual who embraced revived paganism as a religious philosophy before other, better known figures who have been discussed by previous scholars. The individual in question was the teacher and writer John Fransham (1730–1810). This article seeks to elucidate the main tenets of Fransham's religious outlook and to locate him within the intellectual context of his time, as both a product of and a rebel against the British Enlightenment. It also publishes his most explicitly pagan piece of writing for the first time.