ABSTRACT
John Toland was condemned by the Irish parliament and denounced from church pulpits all over Ireland after the publication in 1696 of his controversial book, Christianity not Mysterious. Threatened with arrest, Toland fled abroad (not for the first time). Then only 26, he was to spend the remainder of his years in exile, philosophizing, publishing and polemicizing on the burning issues of his time. On his death-bed in 1722, Toland signed one of his last books, Pantheisticon, with what he claimed was his original baptismal name Janus Junius Edganesius-a signature indicating his place of birth on the Inis Eoghain peninsula in Donegal in accordance with native Gaelic practice. Beside this baptismal name, he added the pseudonym Cosmopoli, meaning ‘one who belongs to the world’.
