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50-597: In A Letter Concerning Toleration , Locke wrote that "there is absolutely no such thing, under the Gospel, as a Christian Commonwealth". By this he meant that political authority cannot be validly founded upon Christianity. Rousseau, in On the Social Contract (in book 4, chapter 8), echoed this, saying that "I am mistaken in saying 'a Christian republic'; the two words are mutually exclusive.". However, Rousseau's point

100-692: A Professor of Divinity . It was to be a discussion with Limborch that persuaded Locke to temporarily put aside his work on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and put forth his ideas on toleration. Locke wrote the Letter during the winter of 1685–86. One of the founders of Empiricism , Locke develops a philosophy that is contrary to the one expressed by Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan , in supporting toleration for various Christian denominations. Hobbes did allow individuals to maintain their own religious beliefs as long as they outwardly expressed those of

150-471: A fear that Catholicism might be taking over England and responds to the problem of religion and government by proposing religious toleration as the answer. This "letter" is addressed to an anonymous "Honored Sir": this was Locke's close friend Philipp van Limborch , who published it without Locke's knowledge. In the wake of the discovery of the Rye House Plot and Charles II 's persecution of

200-536: A foreign jurisdiction in his territory and...allow for his people to be enlisted as soldiers against his government". This has been interpreted by historians as a reference to the Catholic Church, with the Pope being the prince to whom Catholics owed allegiance. However, more recently, scholars have challenged the idea that Locke opposed tolerating Catholics in all circumstances. Mark Goldie argues that

250-673: A humiliating repulse and greatly discredited the Duke. This caused the States General to start looking for a different sovereign. After a first attempt to interest Elizabeth I of England in assuming sovereignty did not succeed, William the Silent was asked to assume the "vacant" title of Count of Holland, but he was assassinated in 1584, before the arrangements could be finalised. After the Treaty of Nonsuch Elizabeth agreed to send aid to

300-462: A passage added in a later edition of the Essay concerning Human Understanding , where Locke perhaps questioned "whether 'atheism' was necessarily inimical to political obedience." Toleration is central to Locke's political philosophy. Consequently, only churches that teach tolerance are allowed in his society. Locke's view on the difficulty of knowing the one true religion may suggest that religion

350-532: A personal union by Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V with the incorporation of the duchy of Guelders in his Burgundian territories in 1544. It was constituted as a separate entity with his Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 . His son, King Philip II of Spain , inherited these provinces on Charles' abdication in 1555. But this actually meant that he assumed the feudal title of each individual province, as Duke of Brabant , Count of Holland etc. There never

400-517: A ruler for having violated the social contract with his subjects, they were the first to apply these theoretical ideas. Historian Pieter Geyl described the Act of Abjuration as a "rather splendid, albeit late, expression of the sturdy medieval tradition of liberty," and noted that while the principles expressed in the act were derived from Calvinism , the document lacked a purely religious argument. In order of appearance, these provinces are mentioned in

450-528: A suggested desertion of the Dutch "flock" by their malevolent "shepherd," Philip. A committee of four members – Andries Hessels, greffier (secretary) of the States of Brabant ; Jacques Tayaert, pensionary of the city of Ghent ; Jacob Valcke, pensionary of the city of Ter Goes (now Goes ); and Pieter van Dieven (also known as Petrus Divaeus), pensionary of the city of Mechelen – was charged with drafting what

500-525: Is a contradiction in terms" and that the two live "in an uneasy relationship in actual states, and social cohesion has often been bought at the price of Christian universalism". Robert Neelly Bellah has observed that most of the great republican theorists of the Western world have shared Rousseau's concerns about the mutually exclusive nature of republicanism and Christianity, from Machiavelli (more on which later) to Alexis de Tocqueville . Rousseau's thesis

550-424: Is not personally important to Locke. Still, it also may point to the deep uncertainties surrounding religious belief in a time of political and intellectual conflict. In contrast, Locke's view on atheism suggests that he was far from considering religion unimportant. As an empiricist, he considered practical considerations, such as how the peace of civil society would be affected by religious toleration. Closely reading

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600-512: Is not universally held. Indeed, it was refuted by, amongst others, his friend Antoine-Jacques Roustan in a reply to the Social Contract . Rousseau's thesis has a basis in the prior writings of Niccolò Machiavelli , whom Rousseau called a "bon citoyen et honnête homme" and who alongside Montesquieu was one of Rousseau's sources for republican philosophy. In his Discoursi Machiavelli observes that Christianity in practice has not met

650-435: Is that the two are incompatible because they make different demands upon the virtuous man. Christianity, according to Rousseau, demands submission (variously termed "servitude" or "slavery" by scholars of his work) to imposed authority and resignation, and requires focus upon the unworldly; whereas republicanism demands participation rather than submission, and requires focus upon the worldly. Rousseau's position on Christianity

700-812: Is the declaration of independence by many of the provinces of the Netherlands from their allegiance to Philip II of Spain , during the Dutch Revolt . Signed on 26 July 1581, in The Hague , the Act formally confirmed a decision made by the States General of the Netherlands in Antwerp four days earlier. It declared that all magistrates in the provinces making up the Union of Utrecht were freed from their oaths of allegiance to their lord, Philip, who

750-610: The Dutch Revolt (beginning in 1566), the Dutch Republic emerged from rejection of Spanish Habsburg rule. However, the country did not adopt the republican form of government immediately: in the formal declaration of independence ( Act of Abjuration , 1581), the throne of king Philip , was only declared vacant, and the Dutch magistrates asked the Duke of Anjou , queen Elizabeth of England and prince William of Orange , one after another, to replace Philip. It took until 1588 before

800-639: The Estates (the Staten , the representative assembly at the time) decided to vest the sovereignty of the country in itself. The Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church never became the official state church of the Dutch Republic, but it was publicly privileged over all other religions and churches, which did enjoy some level of tolerance, however. Earlier during the Dutch Revolt, many autonomous cities in

850-567: The Old Swiss Confederacy – a powerful republic – since 1526 due to its anti-Savoy alliance treaty with Bern and Fribourg). John Calvin did not call for the abolition of monarchy, but he advanced the doctrine that the faithful had the right to overthrow irreligious monarchs. During 1536–8 and 1541–64, Calvin and his allies turned Geneva into the first so-called Calvinist republic. Calvinism also espoused egalitarianism and an opposition to hierarchy. Advocacy for republics appeared in

900-502: The Treaty of Plessis-les-Tours , while Matthias was bought off with a generous annuity. Holland and Zeeland however did not join in the offer, preferring to look to William himself for the transfer of sovereignty. Transferring the sovereignty of the Netherlands presented a significant problem: the magistrates of the cities and rural areas, and the provincial states themselves, had sworn allegiance to Philip. Oaths of allegiance were taken very seriously during this monarchical era. As long as

950-711: The Whigs , Locke fled England to Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic in September 1683. Throughout his life, Locke was interested in the debate about religious toleration . The question was much debated in Holland during Locke's stay, and in October 1685, Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes that had guaranteed religious toleration for French Protestants . In the Dutch Republic , Locke met Philipp van Limborch ,

1000-498: The stadtholders appointed by the provincial estates continued to claim they represented Philip. This pretence was already wearing thin, however, by the time of the Pacification of Ghent in 1576. When Don Juan attacked Antwerp and Namur in 1577, the States General – as the provincial estates did with the non-royalist stadtholders – appointed Archduke Matthias , Philip's nephew, as viceroy, without Philip's consent. Matthias

1050-466: The Dutch rebels as their protector, though without assuming sovereignty. Under the provisions of the treaty, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester was appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands. However, like the "reign" of the Duke of Anjou, this proved to be a disappointment. After Leicester's departure in 1587, and given what the British historian John Huxtable Elliott called “the slow decline of

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1100-535: The Letter and defended the view that the government has the right to use force to cause dissenters to reflect on the merits of Anglicanism, the True Religion. Locke's reply to Proast developed into an extended, controversial exchange. Act of Abjuration The Act of Abjuration ( Dutch : Plakkaat van Verlatinghe ; Spanish : Acta de Abjuración , lit.   'placard of abjuration ')

1150-565: The Letter suggests that during [its] composition ... Locke was once again struggling over how to discriminate between the series of associated political principles which for him made Catholics intolerable, and the religious worship and other religious beliefs of Catholics which deserved toleration." A confirmation of these positions seems to come from a 2019 discovery of a previously unknown manuscript, dated 1667–8, titled Reason for tolerating Papists equally with others , in which Locke makes his earliest arguments for religious toleration. In one of

1200-547: The Netherlands, strengthening the radicals. At the same time, the States-General had their own claim for authority, as indeed did William as their representative in most provinces, while Anjou was left as a sort of empty figure-head. The latter was not satisfied with his limited powers and made an attempt to subjugate a number of cities, including Antwerp. His assault on the latter, known as the French Fury , led to

1250-412: The Silent therefore decided that the rebellious Netherlands should look for an overlord who could bring useful foreign allies. He hoped that Francis, Duke of Anjou , the younger brother and heir-presumptive of King Henry III of France , who did not wish to be someone else's viceroy, was such a man. The rebel States General was persuaded to offer him the sovereignty of the Netherlands, which he accepted by

1300-464: The Silent , the leader of the Dutch Revolt, put it – as an attempt whereby “the Republic’s ancient privileges and liberty should be restored”; partly as directed against the royal councillors, not the king: thus the legal fiction was maintained of just having revolted against his viceroys , successively the Duke of Alba , Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens , John of Austria , and the Duke of Parma , while

1350-561: The Southern Netherlands also came under the control of radical Calvinists, especially in the years 1577–1578, and formed so-called Calvinist republics. Due to its extreme theocratic tendencies, the most notable was the Calvinist Republic of Ghent (1577–1584), but Antwerp and Brussels have also been characterised by historians as Calvinist republics between 1577 and 1585. One by one, these cities were reconquered by

1400-655: The Spanish Army of Flanders commanded by Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma . In the north, Amsterdam experienced the Alteratie , a bloodless coup in which Calvinists took control of the city, but mostly in order to end its economic isolation and resume trade; no Calvinist regime was established here. In 1641 the English Civil War began. Spearheaded by the Puritans and funded by the merchants of London,

1450-529: The Spanish king. The Act of Abjuration did not solve the problem of authority in the Low Countries. Philip did not recognise the Act, nor the sovereignty of the Duke of Anjou, while he had already outlawed William of Orange and put a price on his head. Many magistrates refused to take the new oath and preferred to resign from their offices, thus changing the political makeup of many rebellious cities in

1500-502: The conflict with Philip could be glossed over, these magistrates could pretend to remain loyal to the king, but if a new sovereign was recognised, they had to make a choice. The rebellious States General decided on 14 June 1581 to officially declare the throne vacant, because of Philip's behaviour. Hence the Dutch name for the Act of Abjuration: "Plakkaat van Verlatinghe", which may be translated as "Placard of Desertion". This referred not to desertion of Philip by his subjects, but rather, to

1550-622: The declaration: the Duchies of Brabant and Guelders , the Counties of Flanders , Holland and Zeeland , and the Lordships of Frisia , Mechelen and Utrecht . The provinces of Overijssel (which included Drenthe ) and Groningen also seceded but are not separately mentioned as they strictly speaking were not separate entities but parts of Utrecht and Guelders, respectively. Large parts of Flanders and Brabant were later occupied again by

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1600-474: The deduction of François Vranck the provinces became a republic in 1588. During that period the largest parts of Flanders and Brabant and a small part of Gelre were recaptured by Spain. The partial recapture of these areas to Spain led to the creation of Staats-Vlaanderen , Staats-Brabant, Staats-Overmaas and Spaans Gelre. The Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands were united in

1650-408: The ideals of its foundation, and that the resultant corruption leads, when mixed with secular political ideals, to something that is neither good religion nor good politics. Further, he argues, whilst Christianity does not preclude love for one's country, it does require citizens to endure damage to republican government, stating that the best civic virtue in regards to a republic is to show no mercy to

1700-433: The last paragraphs, Locke argued against atheists : "Lastly, those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of a God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all; besides also, those that by their atheism undermine and destroy all religion, can have no pretence of religion whereupon to challenge

1750-506: The mid-18th century the stadtholder had become a de facto monarch. Calvinists were also some of the earliest settlers of the British and Dutch colonies of North America. A Letter Concerning Toleration A Letter Concerning Toleration (Epistola de tolerantia) by John Locke was originally published in 1689. Its initial publication was in Latin , and it was immediately translated into other languages. Locke's work appeared amidst

1800-412: The possibility that Catholics could be tolerated if they adopted tolerant principles and rejected political allegiance to the Pope. John Marshall has argued that several passages in the Letter demonstrate that Locke believed that Catholics "in their terms of worship and religious speculative beliefs...deserved their worship to be free". Marshall also notes that "The combination of Locke’s comments in

1850-496: The privilege of a toleration. As for other practical opinions, though not absolutely free from all error, if they do not tend to establish domination over others or civil impunity to the Church in which they are taught, there can be no reason why they should not be tolerated." This critique excluded all atheistic varieties of philosophy and all attempts to deduce ethics and natural law from purely secular premises. There exists also

1900-600: The province in which they served, according to a form prescribed by the States General. The actual draft seems to have been written by an audiencier of the States General, Jan van Asseliers. The Act was remarkable for its extensive preamble, which took the form of an ideological justification, phrased as an indictment (a detailed list of grievances) of King Philip. This form, to which the American Declaration of Independence bears striking resemblance, has given rise to speculation that Thomas Jefferson , when he

1950-616: The republic's enemies and to put to death or to enslave the inhabitants of an opposing city that has been defeated. While the classical writers had been the primary ideological source for the republics of Italy, in Northern Europe, the Protestant Reformation would be used as justification for establishing new republics. Most important was Calvinist theology, which developed in Geneva (a city-state associated with

2000-477: The revolt was a success, and led to the Commonwealth of England and the execution of King Charles I . In England James Harrington , Algernon Sidney , and John Milton became some of the first writers to argue for rejecting monarchy and embracing a republican form of government. The English Commonwealth was short lived, and the monarchy soon restored. The Dutch Republic continued in name until 1795, but by

2050-451: The state, however, and it has been argued that Locke's rejection of Catholic Imperialism was the ultimate basis for his rejection of the government's interest in spiritual salvation. "That church can have no right to be tolerated by the magistrate," Locke argued, "which is so constituted that all who enter it ipso facto pass into the allegiance and service of another prince". If this were to be tolerated, "the magistrate would make room for

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2100-629: The text also reveals that Locke relies on Biblical analysis at several key points in his argument. There were immediate responses from the High Church Anglican clergy, published by Thomas Long and Jonas Proast . Long believed the letter represented an atheistically disguised Jesuit plot for the Roman Catholic Church to gain dominance by bringing chaos and ruin to the English Church and State. Proast attacked

2150-449: The traditional interpretation of Locke's position on Catholics "needs finessing, since he did not exclude the theoretical possibility of tolerating Catholics...if Catholics could discard their uncivil beliefs, they could then be tolerated". Goldie asserts that Locke was opposed not to Catholicism as such but antinomianism , the belief that ordinary moral laws are superseded by religious truth. Scott Sowerby also claims that Locke left open

2200-701: The writings of the Huguenots during the French Wars of Religion . Calvinism played an important role in the republican revolts in England and the Netherlands. Like the city-states of Italy and the Hanseatic League, both were important trading centres, with a large merchant class prospering from the trade with the New World. Large parts of the population of both areas also embraced Calvinism. During

2250-468: Was a single, unified state of the Netherlands, though the provinces were all represented in the States General of the Netherlands , since the Great Charter or Privilege of Mary of Burgundy , of 10 February 1477. In the Dutch Revolt , from 1568 several of these provinces rose in rebellion against Philip. Given the monarchical ethos of the time, the revolt had to be justified partly – as William

2300-484: Was also King of Spain. The grounds given were that Philip had failed in his obligations to his subjects, by oppressing them and violating their ancient rights. Philip was therefore considered to have forfeited his thrones as ruler of each of the provinces which signed the Act. The Act of Abjuration allowed the newly independent territories to govern themselves, although they first offered their thrones to alternative candidates. When this failed in 1587 by, among other things,

2350-525: Was subtly different, in that he was asserting that a civic identity cannot be moulded out of Christianity. David Walsh , founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family , acknowledges that there is a "genuine tension ... between Christianity and the political order" that Rousseau was acknowledging, arguing that "many Christians would, after all, agree with him that a 'Christian republic'

2400-510: Was to become the Act of Abjuration. The Act prohibited the use of the name and seal of Philip in all legal matters, and of his name or arms in minting coins. It gave authority to the Councils of the provinces to henceforth issue the commissions of magistrates. The Act relieved all magistrates of their previous oaths of allegiance to Philip, and prescribed a new oath of allegiance to the States of

2450-422: Was writing the latter, was at least partly inspired by the Act of Abjuration. The preamble was based on Vindiciae contra tyrannos by Philippe de Mornay , and other works of monarchomachs may have been sources of inspiration also. The rebels, in their appeal to public opinion, may have thought it more important to quote "authoritative" sources and refer to "ancient rights" they wished to defend. By deposing

2500-497: Was young and inexperienced, and brought no resources of his own to the battle with Philip. This became a serious problem after the Duke of Parma started to make serious inroads against the tenuous unity of the Pacification with his Union of Arras of a number of southern Provinces, which the rebellious northern provinces answered with their own Union of Utrecht , both in 1579. Each union formed its own Estates General. William

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