Thomas Coleman was an English clergyman, known for his scholarship in the Hebrew language

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

, which earned him the nickname ‘Rabbi Coleman’, and for his Erastian view of church polity. In the Westminster Assembly

Westminster Assembly

The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...

 he was the clerical leader of the Erastian party, alongside the lawyer John Selden

John Selden

John Selden was an English jurist and a scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution and scholar of Jewish law...

. Selden praised him, with Thomas Erastus

Thomas Erastus

Thomas Erastus was a Swiss physician and theologian best known for a posthumously published work in which he argued that the sins of Christians should be punished by the state, and not by the church withholding the sacraments...

, in his De Synedriis.

Life

He was a native of Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

, and entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford in 1615. He graduated B.A. in 1618, M.A. in 1621, and took holy orders. He held for a time the rectory of Blyton

Blyton

Blyton is a village and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is north-east of Gainsborough. From Blyton the village of Laughton lies to the north, and Pilham to the south-east, while the course of the River Trent is nearby to the west.Blyton had a population...

 in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, which he exchanged in 1642 for that of St. Peter's, Cornhill. Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood

Anthony Wood or Anthony à Wood was an English antiquary.-Early life:Anthony Wood was the fourth son of Thomas Wood , BCL of Oxford, where Anthony was born...

 says that he died early in 1647.

Works and views

He published sermons and tracts.

Lamont sees Coleman's preaching in 1644 as an important precursor of Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury , in some older texts Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, was an English philosopher, best known today for his work on political philosophy...

, anticipating principles to be found in Leviathan

Leviathan (book)

Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil — commonly called simply Leviathan — is a book written by Thomas Hobbes and published in 1651. Its name derives from the biblical Leviathan...

. In 1645 Coleman was strongly opposed by George Gillespie

George Gillespie

George Gillespie was a Scottish theologian.-Life:He was born at Kirkcaldy, where his father, John Gillespie, was parish minister, and studied at St. Andrews University as a "presbytery bursar". On graduating he became domestic chaplain to John Gordon, 1st Viscount Kenmure , and afterwards to John...

. In A Brotherly Examination Re-examined (1645), Coleman summed up the position: Gillespie had conceded that the opposition to the Erastians, the Presbyterian and Independent groups in the Assembly, had in common their aversion to the Erastian approach. Matters were left to drift while the Presbyterians made hopeful comments about the possible good to come from orderliness within the churches. He could point to John Ley

John Ley

-Life:He was born in Warwick 4 February 1583, and received his early education at the free school in that town. On 12 February 1602 he entered Christ Church, Oxford, and graduated B.A. and M.A. . Taking holy orders he was presented to the vicarage of Great Budworth, Cheshire, in 1616. He...

 arguing just this way, to attack John Saltmarsh

John Saltmarsh (clergyman)

John Saltmarsh was a radical English religious and controversial writer and preacher. He is considered one of the Seekers. William Haller called him that strange genius, part poet and part whirling dervish. In his time he was a renowned prophet.-Life:He studied at Magdalene College, Cambridge...

. But they made for strange bedfellows, with the Presbyterians now borrowing the positions of the Independents, considering that the actual contemporary situation was a breakdown of order, and all for the sake of denying the Erastian position of effective control through the state,

According to Lamont:
Lamont sums up the Erastians in relation to theocracy

Theocracy

Theocracy is a form of organization in which the official policy is to be governed by immediate divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided, or simply pursuant to the doctrine of a particular religious sect or religion....

 in this way: