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Who really said it

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law

Verified — Jefferson’s legal commonplace book, sent to Thomas Cooper in 1814 Thomas Jefferson 1743–1826 · principal author of the Declaration of Independence & 3rd U.S. president
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Genuine, and the wording is close to exact. It is the conclusion of section 873 of Jefferson’s legal commonplace book, written when he was a law student in the 1760s and sent to Thomas Cooper under a covering letter of 10 February 1814. It was printed after his death as an appendix, ‘Whether Christianity is Part of the Common Law?’, to his Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia (1829). One detail the popular version loses: the full sentence begins ‘we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth)’ the covering letter ↗.

Last verified 21 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law” —Thomas Jefferson, legal commonplace book §873, sent to Thomas Cooper, 10 February 1814.

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Provenance

The source

Document
Legal commonplace book, sections 873 and 879
Written
As a law student, 1760s — ‘now half a century ago’
Sent to
Thomas Cooper, 10 February 1814, from Monticello
Printed in
Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia (1829), appendix

Here, then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it. ... we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law. Legal commonplace book, §873

The ellipsis skips a step of the argument, not a qualification. Jefferson’s point is chronological: the common law was in place from the Saxon settlement in the fifth century, and England was not Christian until the seventh — two hundred years of common law with no Christianity in it, and no statute afterwards that ever adopted it.

The commonplace-book extract, printed with the Cooper letter

How we traced it

  • The covering letter is on Founders Online, from the Jefferson Papers Retirement Series, vol. 7, pp. 190–191. Jefferson tells Cooper he is enclosing ‘the extract from these entries which I promised’, written when he was ‘bold in the pursuit of knolege… bearding every authority which stood in their way.’ The Princeton editors identify the enclosure as sections 873 and 879 of his commonplace book the letter and editorial note ↗.
  • The argument itself is a piece of forensic bibliography. Jefferson traces the doctrine that ‘Christianity is part of the laws of England’ back through Blackstone, Wood, the Woolston case, Hale, Sheppard and Wingate to Finch in 1613 — who, he says, mistranslated Chief Justice Prisot’s Law French ‘ancien scripture’ (ancient writing) as ‘Holy Scripture.’ Every later authority quotes Finch, or each other, or nobody.
  • He made the same case twice more in letters we can read: to John Adams on 24 January 1814, in almost the same words, and to Major John Cartwright on 5 June 1824, calling the doctrine a ‘judiciary forgery.’ Neither letter contains this exact sentence — it is the commonplace-book text that does the 1824 letter ↗.
Public domain

Public domain worldwide. Jefferson died in 1826 and the text was published in 1829, so it is out of copyright everywhere by a wide margin — quote it freely. The only caution is editorial: the annotations on Founders Online are copyright Princeton University Press, so cite Jefferson’s words rather than the editors’ notes. This is not legal advice.

Fact-check

What to watch for

The attribution holds. What circulates loose are a tidied-up capitalisation, a missing parenthesis, and a claim about which letter it comes from.

‘Common Law’ is later tidying minor drift

The printed text has lower-case ‘common law’ and a comma after ‘is’: ‘Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.’ The capitalised ‘Common Law’ version you see quoted is a modern smoothing, not Jefferson’s page.

He knew he was outnumbered clipped

The full sentence reads ‘we may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.’ The parenthesis is the most Jeffersonian part of it, and it is almost always cut.

Not the Cartwright letter common slip

It is often sourced to Jefferson’s celebrated 1824 letter to John Cartwright, which makes the same argument at length — but that letter does not contain this sentence. Nor does the 24 January 1814 letter to Adams. The sentence is in the commonplace-book extract sent to Cooper read the 1824 letter ↗.

About English legal history context

Jefferson is making a narrow historical argument about whether English judges ever had authority for the doctrine — not a general statement that religion had no influence on law. He was picking apart a chain of citations, and he thought it snapped at the first link.

Genuinely Jefferson — from his legal commonplace book, sent to Thomas Cooper on 10 February 1814 and printed in 1829 the source ↗.

Context

Why it resonates

It is the rare quotable line that is also a footnote-level technical claim: not ‘religion should stay out of law’ but ‘the authority you are citing is a mistranslation from 1613.’ That is why both sides of the church-and-state argument keep reaching for it.

The other reason it lasts is the parenthesis nobody quotes. A young colonial lawyer writes that every judge and writer on earth is against him, and then says it anyway — and is still saying it sixty years later.

Every judge and writer on earth was against him. He wrote it down anyway, and then spent sixty years checking.

The chain Jefferson thought was broken

1458: Chief Justice Prisot, in a Year Book case, says courts should give credence to the church’s laws found in ‘ancien scripture’ — ancient writing.

1613: Finch renders that as ‘holy Scripture’ and cites Prisot in the margin.

1658 and 1675: Wingate and Sheppard repeat Finch’s words while citing Prisot.

1676: Sir Matthew Hale declares ‘Christianity is parcel of the laws of England’, citing nobody.

1728–1763: the Woolston court cites Hale, Wood cites Woolston, Blackstone cites both — and Lord Mansfield adds his own authority. Jefferson’s verdict: all hanging on one hook, or on nothing.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Justice Truth

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Cooper, 10 February 1814founders.archives.gov

The covering letter, with the editors’ note identifying the enclosed commonplace-book sections.
The enclosure: commonplace book §§873 and 879, in fulllet.rug.nl

The text of the extract, including the sentence itself and the Prisot mistranslation argument.
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, 24 January 1814founders.archives.gov

The same argument in a letter to Adams, six weeks earlier — ‘a mistranslation by Finch of the words of Prisot, or on nothing.’
Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 5 June 1824founders.archives.gov

The late restatement, calling the doctrine a judiciary forgery. Widely reprinted by separationists.

The true author

About Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

1743–1826 · Author of the Declaration of Independence & 3rd U.S. president

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) trained as a lawyer under George Wythe and kept a commonplace book of everything he read, arguing with it in the margins. This sentence comes from that student habit — he was in his twenties when he wrote it — and he was still defending it in his eighties. He drafted the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and coined the ‘wall of separation between church and state’; this is the technical, lawyerly foundation underneath both, and the reason it is quoted far more often than it is read.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Jefferson, Thomas. Legal commonplace book, §873; enclosed with his letter to Thomas Cooper, 10 February 1814. Printed as ‘Whether Christianity is Part of the Common Law?’ in Reports of Cases Determined in the General Court of Virginia (1829).

MLA (9th ed.)

Jefferson, Thomas. Legal commonplace book, §873. Enclosed with letter to Thomas Cooper, 10 Feb. 1814.

APA (7th ed.)

Jefferson, T. (1814, February 10). Legal commonplace book §873 [enclosure to Thomas Cooper].

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