Hobbes, Taylor, and Locke’s View of Toleration in the 1660s

Abstract Hobbes scholars have shown the relevance of Hobbes for Locke’s view of toleration in the 1660s. However, Hobbes’s position on toleration has been shown to be close to that of the Episcopalian tolerationist Jeremy Taylor. Thus, I reconsider Locke’s “Hobbesian” ideas on toleration in view of Taylor. Some of Locke’s ideas in the English Tract that have been characterized as Hobbesian can also be found in Taylor. Moreover, Taylor’s argument was closer than that of Hobbes to Locke’s distinctive ideas in An Essay concerning Toleration . On the other hand, unlike Taylor, Hobbes and Locke focused on public peace in their consideration of toleration, and this feature, together with their corresponding lack of enthusiasm for the suppression of heresies, distinguished the two from many contemporary polemicists on toleration. This examination also sheds new light on the intellectual context of Locke’s An Essay concerning Toleration .