A Letter Concerning Toleration and Other Writings. John Locke
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own system of discipline and his attitude to Catholicism. The transcriptions are taken from the edition by John Lough, Locke’s Travels in France, 1675–1679 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), pp. 15, 22–23, 29–30, 40, 43, 45, 85–86, 108, 130, 223, 229–30, 271. The journals contain many kinds of entry besides Locke’s travelogue: the next three items below are also from these journals but are philosophical memoranda. Locke spent most of this period at Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast, in a region where many towns were predominantly Protestant.
The Obligation of Penal Laws (25 February 1676).
MS Locke f. 1, pp. 123–26. Marginal keywords: “Obligation of Penal Laws,” “Lex Humana.” This memorandum is an important measure of Locke’s political opinions at this time. It is conservative in tone, showing no hint of a right of resistance, which suggests that the transition to the Two Treatises of Government came late. Locke does, however, stress that most human laws are purely regulatory and that divine authority cannot be invoked beyond the general duty of obeying those governments that uphold civil peace and mutual preservation. Similarly, no particular form of government has divine sanction.
Toleration and Error (23 August 1676).
MS Locke f. 1, pp. 412–15. Marginal keywords: “Toleration,” “Peace.” Written in shorthand: the transcription is from Wolfgang von Leyden’s edition of Locke’s Essays on the Law of Nature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1954), pp. 274–75. Locke answers objections to religious toleration and distinguishes between civil and ecclesiastical government.
Toleration in Israel (19 April 1678).
MS Locke f. 3, p. 107. Marginal keyword: “Toleration.” A note concerning the ancient Jewish state.
Toleration and Sincerity (1679).
MS Locke d. 1, pp. 125–26. Heading: “Toleratio.” Locke reiterates principles laid down in the Essay Concerning Toleration.
Latitude (1679).
MS Locke d. 1, p. 5. Headed “Conformitas.” Locke recounts a story about Protestants at Constantinople, which implies a preference for the “comprehension” of dissenting Protestants within the fold of the national church.
The Origin of Religious Societies (1681).
An excerpt from Locke’s critique of Edward Stillingfleet. MS Locke c. 34, fols. 75–79. This substantial manuscript is written in the hands of Locke, James Tyrrell, and Locke’s amanuensis Sylvester Brounower. It is untitled, and the common designations, “Critical Notes on Stillingfleet” and “Defence of Nonconformity,” are modern. The target is a sermon and treatise by Stillingfleet, The Mischief of Separation (1680) and The Unreasonableness of Separation (1681).
There is as yet no published edition, though short excerpts have appeared in various places, and there is a complete transcription in Timothy Stanton, “John Locke, Edward Stillingfleet, and Toleration” (Ph.D. thesis, Leicester, 2003), from which the present excerpt is derived, with his permission. I have not registered the innumerable alterations that occur in the manuscript. The sentence preceding this excerpt refers to examining “the original of religious societies.”
Enthusiasm (19 February 1682).
MS Locke f. 6, pp. 20–25. Untitled. A commentary on Select Discourses (1660) by the Cambridge Platonist John Smith, concerning “The True Way or Method of Attaining to Divine Knowledge.” “Enthusiasm” was a pejorative term for extravagant and dangerous forms of spirituality, involving claims for direct divine inspiration. Locke included some of this material in a letter he wrote to Damaris Masham in April. Later, he inserted a chapter on “Enthusiasm” in the Essay Concerning Human Understanding: bk. 4, chap. 19.
Ecclesia (1682).
MS Locke d. 10, p. 43. Locke’s heading. A commentary on Richard Hooker, The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (1593–97). Locke bought a copy of Hooker in June 1681 and took extensive notes from it.
Tradition (1682).
MS Locke d. 10, p. 163. Headed “Traditio.” A criticism of the role of clerical “tradition” in the teachings of Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam. Locke’s implied position is the Protestant principle of sola scriptura: the sufficiency of Scripture alone, without the necessity of priestly interpretive authority. The quarrel between the sufficiency of Scripture and the necessity of tradition was known as the “Rule of Faith” controversy.
Pennsylvania Laws (1686).
MS Locke f. 9, fols. 33, 39. Excerpts from Locke’s comments on William Penn’s Frame of Government, headed “Pensilvania Laws.” Only the comments on religious and moral matters are included. The first several items appear at the head of the document; the last item, on schools, appears later. Locke’s final comment is comprehensively negative: “the whole is so far from a frame of government that it scarce contains a part of the materials.”
Pacific Christians (1688).
MS Locke c. 27, fol. 80. Headed “Pacifick Christians.” Apparently a set of guiding principles for a religious society. Compare “Rules of the Dry Club” (1692), whose members must declare that they believe “no person ought to be harmed in his body, name, or goods, for mere speculative opinions, or his external way of worship” (Locke, Works, 1801, vol. 10, pp. 312–14).
Sacerdos (1698).
In the notebook “Adversaria 1661,” p. 93. Locke’s heading. He begins with an account of ancient religion, out of Cicero, and then turns to stress the essential character of Christianity as holy living, not ritual performances. The passage is a commentary on Pierre Bayle’s Pensées diverses (1683), §127.
Error (1698).
In the notebook “Adversaria 1661,” pp. 320–21. Locke’s heading. He attacks elaborate doctrinal confessions of faith, unquestioning belief, and the tyranny of orthodoxy. He affirms the priority of sincerity in belief and morality in conduct.
Scriptures for Toleration (undated, ca. 1676–90).
MS Locke c. 33, fol. 24. Headed “Tolerantia Pro.” A series of biblical citations that Locke takes as favoring toleration.
| 1632 | Born at Wrington, Somerset, 29 August |
| 1642 | Outbreak of the Civil Wars |
| 1643 | Troops of Col. Popham, Locke’s future patron, despoil Wells Cathedral |
| 1645 | Defeat of Charles I at Naseby by Oliver Cromwell |
| 1647 | Admitted to Westminster School, London |
| 1648 | Treaty of Westphalia ends European Thirty Years’ War |
| 1649 | Execution of Charles I; England a republic |
| 1651 | Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan |
| 1652 | Elected a Student of Christ Church, Oxford |
| 1652–67 | Usually resident in Oxford |
| 1655 | Graduates as a bachelor of arts |
| 1658 | Graduates as a master of arts; death of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell |
| 1660 |
Restoration of |