wanton instances of unnecessary persecution, was largely due to the political exigencies of the Protectorate; but it was also theoretically justified by the conception of the congregation as the ecclesiastical unit. Of course, it excluded enemies of the State like Episcopalians and Papists; but it was based on an entire separation of Church and State. The genuineness of the commonwealth in which Cromwell was Protector and Milton Secretary, is shown in the powerful intercession for the Vaudois, and in the restoration of citizenship (though not in the Aristotelian sense[1]) to the Jews.
Harrington's "Oceana," published in 1656, best expounds the ideas of this time on toleration. His most pregnant sentence runs:—" Where civil liberty is entire, it includes liberty of conscience," and this he wished to have protected by the magistrate. Yet the State is to profess a religion and employ Scriptural experts to construct it, since individuals have not sufficient leisure. There is to be a Council of Religion, as there are Councils of Trade and War, to which religious officers are to be elected by the people.
His anxiety to give the State much of that authority over public opinion which had belonged to the Church, springs from his anti-sacerdotalism. He quotes the excellent control of Holland and Venice over their clergy, and remarks: "My
- ↑ i.e., of giving them a share in the government.
