[Ads-l] Origin of the Phrase "Separation of Church and State"

[Shapiro, Fred]

OED does not have an entry for the phrase "separation of church and state," although there is a citation for it in the entry for "separation."  This phrase is commonly traeed to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson.

Newspapers.com retrieves a 1798 occurrence of "separation of church and state" in the Evening Mail (London), 7 Feb. at page 3.  These words appear in a report of a convention at the Hague.

Fred Shapiro

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