of new opinions, and truth is discovered by free discussion. If the
waters of truth “flow not in a perpetual progression they sicken into a
muddy pool of conformity and tradition.” Books which are authorized by
the licensers are apt to be, as Bacon said, “but the language of the
times,” and do not contribute to progress. The examples of the countries
where the censorship is severe do not suggest that it is useful for
morals: “look into Italy and Spain, whether those places be one scruple
the better, the honester, the wiser, the chaster, since all the
inquisitional rigour that hath been executed upon books.” Spain indeed
could reply, “We are, what is more important, more orthodox.” It is
interesting to notice that Milton places freedom of thought above civil
liberty: “Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely
according to conscience, above all other liberties.”

With the restoration of the Monarchy and the Anglican Church, religious
liberty was extinguished by a series of laws against Dissenters. To the
Revolution we owe the Act of Toleration (1689) from which the religious
freedom which England enjoys at present is derived. It granted freedom
of worship to Presbyterians, Congregationalists,

[101] Baptists and Quakers, but only to these; Catholics and Unitarians
were expressly excepted and the repressive legislation of Charles II
remained in force against them. It was a characteristically English
measure, logically inconsistent and absurd, a mixture of tolerance and
intolerance, but suitable to the circumstances and the state of public
opinion at the time.

In the same year John Locke’s famous (first) Letter concerning
Toleration appeared in Latin. Three subsequent letters developed and
illustrated his thesis. The main argument is based on the principle that