The Existence and Nature of God

Abstract

Coleridge’s initial acquaintance with Unitarianism may well have taken place during his Cambridge days through his acquaintance with William Frend, the Fellow of his college who was well known for his controversial views. ‘Mr Frend’s company is by no means invidious,’ he wrote to his brother in January 1793, three months after his arrival in Cambridge, adding, however, ’ … Though I am not an Alderman, I have yet prudence enough to respect that gluttony of faith waggishly yclept Ortho-doxy.’¹ But when in the following year Frend was tried and banished from the University after being found guilty of violating the statutes of the University by publishing a pamphlet considered as subversive, Coleridge, sitting among the undergraduates who attended the trial in the Senate House, was reputedly vociferous in his support of the heretic.