Portrait of Vicesimus Knox

Vicesimus Knox

1752 – 1821

Vicesimus Knox (1752-1821) was an English minister who ran afoul of the British authorities in the 1790s with his sermons opposing the war against the French. He was educated at home by his father, attended St. John’s College, Oxford, where he became a fellow, and then was headmaster of Tonbridge School from 1778 to 1812. His main work, The Spirit of Despotism, is an analysis of how political despotism at home can arise under the cover of fighting a foreign war.

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