Freethinkers was an epithet applied to the English Deists of the 17th and 18th centuries who argued for natural as against revealed religion. Anthony Collins (who first made it a name of a party by his Discourse of Free-thinking in London, 1713), and his friend, John Toland, are among the chief of the early freethinkers. Another able writer on the ... Found on http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/browse/CXF.HTM