The Relation of John Locke to English Deism

Religious Opin- ions and Deism 176 3. Theories Tested by Facts 178 INDEX ' councils, and he was imprisoned and his books wereJohn Locke and English Deism burned because his views were not approved.In the period of the Renaissance we see the same centralized authority dictating what men should think.Pompo- nazzi changed his teaching concerning immortality, fear- ing the anathema of Leo X; Bruno was burned; Galileo denied scientific conclusions to escape a like fate.Ecclesiastical authority approved and established sys- tems of philosophy and theories of the universe; and to think differently was a sin against God, punishable by his vicegerent upon earth.Of course such a con- dition could not last; it must break down sooner or later, for "the thrust and kick of life" is felt also in the realm of man's spiritual interests, and whatever hinders here becomes intolerable.But men of the late Middle Ages probably did not feel the hampering conditions under which they lived as keenly as we might think, for the horizon of life's interests was narrow, and religion was their chief concern: the value of things here was estimated largely in terms of the life to come.But a new spirit was making itself felt; at the beginning of the fourteenth century Dante drew materials for his masterpiece from classical as well as from biblical sources, and even acknowledged Virgil to be his teacher and master.And a generation later Petrarch was largely instrumental in starting that contagious enthusiasm for all things of the ancient Roman and Grecian civilizations which resulted in raising up a body of men who loved learning for its own sake, and in giving European culture another center.Along with this growing interest in the humanities there also developed a scientific impulse.As early as the thirteenth century John Locke and English Deism statute of 1400, which decreed death at the stake for heretics, yielded to the new spirit in 1533; but it was re-enacted under Mary and, nominally at least and sometimes actually, continued in force until I676.1 Even as late as 1648 Puritan zeal for orthodox belief caused an ordinance to be passed which made anyone liable to the death penalty "who denied the Trinity, Christ's Divinity, the inspiration of the scriptures, or a future state," and set prison penalties for other heresies. 2Fortunately this act did not result in persecution unto death.But in those troubled times in England, about the middle of the seventeenth century, the lot of the confessor of a disapproved dogma was very uncertain; thousands of clergymen were thrown out of their pulpits because they did not agree with the party in power;and, judging from the successive changes at Oxford, academic freedom was far from realization. 3 However the right to private opinion was more and more recognized.Protestantism, in its appeal from papal authority, recognized the right of appeal; and this was resulting in greater freedom of thought.In the seventeenth century Holland in particular was the land of liberty, the place where Arminians and Socinians and Racovians lived and taught with practically no restraints.And in England many leaders had appeared who forsook the beaten paths, and yet were undisturbed.Important independent religious movements, more or less organ- ized, were able to grow up and continue.Compared with almost all other countries, England was a land of 1

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