Letter about tolerance

First page of the 1765 edition

The letter about tolerance or letter about tolerance (Latin original title Epistola de tolerantia , English title A letter concerning Toleration ) is a publication of the English philosopher John Locke .

history

The first edition was published in 1689 anonymously in Gouda on Latin , the text, however, was then quickly translated into several languages. John Locke wrote this letter during a stay in exile in the Netherlands . In this text, John Locke addresses the problem of denominations , and he grants religions the right to prove themselves through practice without fear of persecution , provided that they do not endanger the state. Many of his thoughts and even some formulations came from the work Dissertatio de pace by Samuel Przypkowski , a socian . He probably got to know the work through the Remonstrant Philipp van Limborch, the editor of the writings of Samuel Przypkowski and other Socinian works, who was a confidante of Locke in exile in the Netherlands. Locke has always distanced himself from the Socians, but in fact he was in many ways dependent on Socinian sources.

Excerpt from the letter on tolerance :

“... I call civil interests life, freedom, health, the painlessness of the body and the possession of external things such as money, land, houses, furnishings and the like. It is the duty of the state authorities, through the impartial execution of laws which are the same for all, to secure the fair possession of these things which belong to their life in general for the whole people and each of their subjects in particular. ... "

First editions

Epistola de tolerantia ad clarissimum virum TARPTOLA [ie theologiae apud Remonstrantes professorem, tyrannorum osorem, Limborch Amstelodamensem] . Apud Justum ab Hoeve, Gouda, 1689. (Latin)
Letter concerning Toleration . London 1689. (English translation by W. Popple)
Missions from tolerance: or from freedom of religion and conscience. 1710. (German translation of the Latin text)
Lettre sur la tolerance . In: Œuvres diverses de monsieur Jean Locke . Fritsch et Böhm, Rotterdam 1710. (French translation)

Web links

Individual evidence

^ The Socinians: A History .
^ John Locke: e il socinianesimo, in "Siena, Fausto Sozzini e la filosofia in Europa, a cura di Mariangela Priarolo e Emanuela Scribano, Siena, Accademia senese degli Intronati, 2005, pp. 211-249.
^ Resistance, obedience and tolerance. Przypkowski and Limborch, in SOCINIANISM AND ARMINIANISM. Antitrinitarians, Calvinists and Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Europe, edited by Martin Mulsow and Jan Rohls, Brill, Leiden • Boston, 2005, pp. 187-206.

[1] The Socinians: A History .

[2] John Locke: e il socinianesimo, in "Siena, Fausto Sozzini e la filosofia in Europa, a cura di Mariangela Priarolo e Emanuela Scribano, Siena, Accademia senese degli Intronati, 2005, pp. 211-249.

[3] Resistance, obedience and tolerance. Przypkowski and Limborch, in SOCINIANISM AND ARMINIANISM. Antitrinitarians, Calvinists and Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Europe, edited by Martin Mulsow and Jan Rohls, Brill, Leiden • Boston, 2005, pp. 187-206.