God, Religion and Toleration

Abstract

Throughout the seventeenth century much ink was spilled in debating the question of church-state relations in England. Hobbes contributed to the discussion in Leviathan and elsewhere. A problem which was closely associated with church-state relations was that of toleration — and this topic also aroused heated discussion, not least in the 1640s. Independents made common cause with Erastians and with the sects to prevent the institution in England of a rigid Presbyterian system on the Scottish model. But the Independents and their allies were themselves divided on just what degree of toleration should be introduced. A number of issues underlay the debate. One was the extent to which the civil magistrate possessed the authority to interfere in religious affairs. Another was the question of whether individuals have a right to worship God according to the dictates of their consciences. A third was the problem of the nature of heresy and of what if any punishment it merited. Finally, some writers (including Chillingworth and Falkland) argued that there were very few essential Christian doctrines and that it would be wrong to persecute anyone for maintaining (or failing to maintain) a religious belief which the bible neither condemned nor prescribed.