If such a 'reliable' source as A. D. White is to be believed then the theory
of Pre-Adamites was around in the seventeenth century:
"About the middle of the seventeenth century Isaac Vossius, one of the most
eminent scholars of Christendom, attempted to bring the prevailing belief
into closer accordance with ascertained facts, but, save by a chosen few,
his efforts were rejected. In some parts of Europe a man holding new views
on chronology was by no means safe from bodily harm. As an example of the
extreme pressure exerted by the old theological system at times upon honest
scholars, we may take the case of La Peyrere, who about the middle of the
seventeenth century put forth his book on the Pre-Adamites - an attempt to
reconcile sundry well-known difficulties in Scripture by claiming that man
existed on earth before the time of Adam. He was taken in hand at once;
great theologians rushed forward to attack him from all parts of Europe;
within fifty years thirty-six different refutations of his arguments had
appeared; the Parliament of Paris burned the book, and the Grand Vicar of
the archdiocese of Mechlin threw him into prison and kept him there until he
was forced, not only to retract his statements, but to abjure his
Protestantism."
http://www.santafe.edu/~shalizi/White/antiquity/sacred.html
Isaac La Peyrere's (c. 1596-1676) books were _Men before Adam_ (1656) and
_Prae-Adamitae_ (1655). He is often credited with being the first person to
(fully?) develop this theory.
Steve
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