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Chapter 6 - Locke and Catholicism

The ‘Roman Leviathan’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 February 2020

Jeffrey R. Collins
Affiliation:
Queen's University, Ontario
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Summary

Chapter 6 examines the particular question of John Locke’s position on the toleration of Catholics. This, the chapter argues, was the major area in which his views did not significantly evolve. Recent scholars have tried to establish that Locke softened his position on the intolerability of Catholics by appealing to a ‘loyalist’, oath-taking minority tradition within the Catholic chapter. This chapter refutes this claim and demonstrates Locke’s lifelong refusal to countenance such Gallican (or, in the English context, ‘Blackloist’) solutions to the Catholic question. When these views of Locke are set in their full context, they emerge as another variation on his rejection of the ‘Hobbesian politique’. Loyalist Catholics after the civil war were strongly influenced by the sovereignty theory of Hobbes and on that basis appealed for toleration as an act of monarchical prerogative. Locke’s hardening opposition to such forms of indulgence alienated him from such strategies. Catholics, he came to believe, were irretrievably dominated by either the papacy or the state and thus could not appeal for religious freedom as an inalienable right.

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In the Shadow of Leviathan
John Locke and the Politics of Conscience
, pp. 271 - 314
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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  • Locke and Catholicism
  • Jeffrey R. Collins, Queen's University, Ontario
  • Book: In the Shadow of Leviathan
  • Online publication: 07 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108778879.007
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  • Locke and Catholicism
  • Jeffrey R. Collins, Queen's University, Ontario
  • Book: In the Shadow of Leviathan
  • Online publication: 07 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108778879.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Locke and Catholicism
  • Jeffrey R. Collins, Queen's University, Ontario
  • Book: In the Shadow of Leviathan
  • Online publication: 07 February 2020
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108778879.007
Available formats
×