LATITUDINARIAN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Latitudinarian

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noun

Latitudinarian n.

1.

One who is moderate in his notions, or not restrained by precise settled limits in opinion; one who indulges freedom in thinking.

2.

(Eng. Eccl. Hist.) A member of the Church of England, in the time of Charles II., who adopted more liberal notions in respect to the authority, government, and doctrines of the church than generally prevailed. "They were called "men of latitude;" and upon this, men of narrow thoughts fastened upon them the name of latitudinarians."

3.

(Theol.) One who departs in opinion from the strict principles of orthodoxy.

adjective

Latitudinarian adj.

1.

Not restrained; not confined by precise limits.

2.

Indifferent to a strict application of any standard of belief or opinion; hence, deviating more or less widely from such standard; lax in doctrine; as, latitudinarian divines; latitudinarian theology. "Latitudinarian sentiments upon religious subjects."

3.

Lax in moral or religious principles.

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Etymology of 'Latitudinarian'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Latitudinarian" Quotes from Famous Books

... upon this interesting subject, it is nevertheless regretted that the suggestions made by me in my annual messages of 1829 and 1830 have been greatly misunderstood. At that time the great struggle was begun against that latitudinarian construction of the Constitution which authorizes the unlimited appropriation of the revenues of the Union to internal improvements within the States, tending to invest in the hands and place under the control of the General Government all the principal ...

— A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents - Section 1 (of 2) of Volume 3: Andrew Jackson (Second Term) • James D. Richardson

... embodying a useless commentary on the first chapter of Genesis; the latter the portly fancy-goods dealer in whose warehouse Daniel Hyams was employed. Gradkoski rivalled Reb Shemuel in his knowledge of the exact loci of Talmudical remarks—page this, and line that—and secretly a tolerant latitudinarian, enjoyed the reputation of a bulwark of orthodoxy too well to give it up. Gradkoski passed easily from writing an invoice to writing a learned article on Hebrew astronomy. Pinchas ignored Joseph ...

— Children of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... brought in connection with her. Her moral hopefulness was something very singular; and in this respect she was so different from the rest of the world, that it would be difficult to make her understood. Her tolerance of wrong-doing would have seemed to many quite latitudinarian, and impressed them as if she had lost all just horror of what was morally wrong in transgression; but it seemed her fixed habit to see faults only as diseases and immaturities, and to expect them to fall ...

— Lady Byron Vindicated • Harriet Beecher Stowe

... presence of a boiled egg on their breakfast-tables would cause some of the more sensitive of these New England Brahmins to betake themselves to their beds for the rest of the day. They kept themselves in a semi-famished state on principle. One of the most liberal and latitudinarian of the sect wrote, in 1835,—"For two years past I have abstained from the use of all the diffusible stimulants, using no animal food, either flesh, fish, or fowl, nor any alcoholic or vinous spirits, no form of ale, beer, or porter, no cider, tea, or coffee; ...

— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various

... mother, or your mother. You want teaching. You are too latitudinarian. And you are too thick ...

— Daisy • Elizabeth Wetherell

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