John Asgill, Newly Elected MP for Enniscorthy, Is Expelled From the Irish Parliament

1703 – John Asgill Expelled from Irish Parliament for Heretical Pamphlet

John Asgill, a recently elected Member of Parliament for Enniscorthy, was expelled from the Irish House of Commons on this date due to a controversial pamphlet he had published in 1698 titled “An Argument Proving that According to the Covenant of Eternal Life Revealed in the Scriptures, Man May be Translated from Hence into That Eternal Life, Without Passing Through Death.”

In this pamphlet, Asgill argued—based on theological reasoning—that death was not a necessity for entering eternal life, and that it might be possible for believers to achieve immortality without dying. While couched in scriptural references, the publication was widely denounced as heretical and blasphemous.

The pamphlet caused widespread outrage, and in 1703, the Irish Parliament voted to expel Asgill, declaring his views incompatible with Christianity and public morality. The pamphlet itself was publicly burned by the common hangman—a symbolic act of state and ecclesiastical condemnation.

Asgill’s expulsion from Parliament became a significant episode in the ongoing tensions between freedom of expression, religious orthodoxy, and legislative authority in early 18th-century Britain and Ireland.