Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution

Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution, part of the Exhibitions at the Folger, opened on June 9, 2004 and closed on October 30, 2004. The exhibition was curated by Vincent Carey, Guest Curator, Elizabeth Walsh, Head of Reader Services, and Ron Bogdan, Senior Rare Book Cataloger. The exhibition catalog can be purchased from the Folger Shop.

The struggle between tolerance and intolerance is an enduring and painful component of the human experience. The refusal to acknowledge and accept as fully human individuals or groups on the basis of their religion, race, or ethnic background has caused immense human misery. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe provides obvious examples of these tendencies, but it also provides ample evidence of the opposite impulse, that of the struggle for tolerance and for freedom of expression. Though justifiably regarded as an era of crisis, religious warfare and persecution, this period also generated powerful, though often isolated, voices for peace and toleration.

Early modern Europeans–occupying a different mental world from our own–did not, by and large, share the values that we associate with the concept of tolerance. While we recognize toleration as a positive value, the majority of them seemingly understood tolerance as the endurance of something negative, even something loathsome. While most Americans today ascribe to the belief that society benefits from having a plurality of peoples and religions, early modern Europeans considered the presence of minority groups and religions dangerous to the state and to the very fabric of their community.

Acknowledging the differences in mentalité between the past and the present, Voices for Tolerance in an Age of Persecution demonstrated how this period witnessed the first challenges to persecution as a world-view. Advocates for toleration did not succeed in ending oppression, but their ideas contributed to the modern struggle for freedom from oppression and the horrors of war

The exhibition did not assume a linear progression from some supposed late-medieval "darkness" to enlightenment liberalism. It explored how rapidly changing times and political instability created conflict and oppression. By tracing the struggles of groups and individuals as they pursued both religious "truth" and freedom from oppression, we hoped to raise questions and heighten awareness of the relevance of these issues for our own time. The books, manuscripts, and art treasures of the Folger Shakespeare Library speak for themselves, suggesting the links between the past and the present. The voices that emerge from these works are alternately shocking and inspiring. They provide us with a window into the timeless and often unsuccessful struggle to balance religious conviction and toleration, a struggle that continues to shape our world today.

Exhibition material

Humanists for Peace

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Europe's leading intellectuals looked forward to a world enlightened by the insights of the ancient Greeks and Romans, by the advance of Christian education, and by an openness to other cultures and languages. Central to this humanist vision of a "New World Order" was the hope that war, especially between the European princes, could be stopped. Desiderius Erasmus, leading spokesman for the humanist peace movement, advocated toleration and an end to all war, even with Christendom's great rival, the Ottoman Turk.

This case included

  • Desiderius Erasmus. Querela pacis undique gentium eiectae profligataeque. [Strasbourg: Matthias Schürer, ca.1516]. PA8517 .Q9 1516 Cage.
  • Sir Thomas More. A fruteful, and pleasaunt worke of the beste state of a publyque weale, and of the newe yle called Vtopia. London: [S. Mierdman], 1551. STC 18094 Copy 1. LUNA Digital Image.

The Reformation

Luther's translation of the New Testament into the vernacular German was arguably the most significant work of his life. The text, written over eleven weeks while Luther was in hiding in the Wartburg castle, was to be the building block of the Reformation, for it provided lay people access to scripture. Competing interpretations of this seminal edition and subsequent translations into other European languages would buttress arguments for both persecution and toleration. Luther himself was an early advocate for the separation of church and state and for religious toleration but as the increasingly revolutionary reform movement evolved into a series of territorial churches and challenges by religious radicals, Luther shifted his position and argued for the suppression of religious dissent and social revolution.

Though hostile in intent, this image is an interesting representation of the fragmentation of Protestantism that occurred in the aftermath of Luther's split with Rome. Here Luther is depicted, with his wife Katharina von Bora, as the "Archehereticke" that nurtured that nurtured the various Protestant sectaries.

This case included

  • Fridericus Staphylus. The apologie of Fridericus Staphylus counseller to the late Emperour Ferdinandus, &c. Antwerp: Iohn Latius, 1565. STC 23230.
  • Das new Testament, yetzund recht grüntlich teutscht [New Testament Bible]. German translation by Martin Luther, 1522. 218- 036.1f.
  • Martin Luther. Wider das Babstum zu Rom vom Teuffel gesnifft. Wittemberg: Hans Lufft, 1545. 171- 186q.
  • Philipp Melanchthon. Of two vvoonderful popish monsters, to wyt, of a popish asse which was found at Rome in the riuer of Tyber, and of a moonkish calfe, calued at Friberge in Misne. [London: By Thomas East, 1579]. STC 17797. LUNA Digital Image.

Struggle for Religious Toleration

The burning of the radical Spanish theologian and medical doctor Michael Servetus in Geneva on 27 October 1553 on the charge of denying the Christian trinity galvanized some of the most influential voices for and against religious toleration in early modern Europe. Servetus' execution horrified many and permanently damaged the reputation of Jean Calvin, the leader of the Genevan reformed church.

Among the voices for toleration of religious viewpoints was Jacopo Aconcio. In his Satanae stratagemata libri octo [1565], Aconcio advocated freedom of religious thought and argued that religious conflict was in fact the work of the devil.

This case included

  • Jacopo Aconcio. Satans Stratagems, or the devils cabinet-councel discovered. London: John Macock, 1648. A443a.

St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre

Although it comprised only a tiny minority of the population (no more than ten per-cent), the French Huguenot or Calvinist faith, and its rapid spread in France, had the effect of destabilizing the country by the early 1560s. The Huguenot struggle for toleration, for the acceptance of two faiths under one ruler, and the ensuing wars of religion (1562-1598) were the occasion of some of the sixteenth century's worst excesses of religious extremism. Nonetheless, this struggle also gave rise to eloquent pleas for toleration and, with the Edict of Nantes (1598) at the end of the conflict, to state-imposed, if ultimately temporary and limited, religious freedom.

The famous painting of the Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris on 24 August 1572 depicts scenes from the most notorious incident in the French wars of religion and one of the most striking examples of the extremes of religious intolerance in the age. The Huguenot (French Calvinist) painter, François Dubois is reputed to have been an eyewitness to the massacre of thousands of his fellow Huguenots on the streets of Paris.

This case included

  • LOAN from Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne. Francois Dubois. Saint Bartholomew's Day massacre. Sixteenth century.
  • The massacre of Paris, (1572). Manuscript, ca. 1575. X.d.233.
  • Edict du roy & declaration sur les precedents edicts de pacification. [Dated Nantes month of Apr. 1598.] Paris, [1599]. 174- 919q.

Jews in Early Modern England

The Jewish people and their faith constituted early modern Europe's most significant minority and non-Christian religious group. Living a separate and at best uneasy existence among their Christian counterparts, Jews frequently experienced torture, expulsion, and death. Among the factors contributing to the European refusal to tolerate the Jews was a series of anti-Jewish myths that associated Jews with the devil and diabolical practices. Despite the Humanist openness to Hebrew learning, the age was characterized by vicious stereotypes and dark fantasies. However, in places like Venice and London (after 1650), where discrimination was moderated, Jewish communities and culture thrived.

In this image from Pierre Boaistuau, a turbaned Jew is depicted poisoning a well. The fiendish alliance to the devil is further suggested by a devil urinating in the same well. The belief that the Jews abducted and ritualistically murdered Christians is illustrated by the image of a child nailed to a cross.

Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice (1600) reflects the anti-Semitism of his age, particularly in the less well-known subtitle that highlights Shylock's Judaism and his inveterate cruelty. Nonetheless there is also a marked ambivalence in Shakespeare's treatment of Shylock. In emphasizing Shylock's humanity, the play gestures toward toleration. By tracing Shylock's inhumanity to his own experience of intolerance, the play suggests the endless cycle of violence brought on by intolerance.

This case included

  • Richard Westall. Shylock Rebuffing Antonio. Oil on canvas, commissioned for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, 1795. FPa83. LUNA Digital Image.
  • William Shakespeare. Most excellent historie of the merchant of Venice. With the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Jew towards the sayd merchant, in cutting a just pound of his flesh: and the obtayning of Portia by the choyce of three chests. London: Printed by I[ames]. R[oberts] for Thomas Heyes, 1600. STC 22296 Copy 1. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Pierre Boaistuau. Certaine secrete wonders of nature, containing a description of sundry strange things, seming monstrous in our eyes and judgement, because we are not privie to the reasons of them. London: Henry Bynneman, 1569. STC 10787. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Symon Patrick. Jewish hypocrisie, a caveat to the present generation. London: Printed by R. W[hite]. for Francis Tyton, 1660. P817. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Manasseh ben Israel. Vindiciæ Judæorum, or A letter in answer to certain questions propounded by a noble and learned gentleman, touching the reproaches cast on the nation of the Jevves. [London]: Printed by R[oger] D[aniel], 1656. 158- 214q.
  • Eleazar Bar-isajah A brief compendium of the vain hopes of the Jews messias. London, 1652. B764.

Miseries of Religious Wars

Religious intolerance ultimately led to conflicts that, when combined with international power struggles, became complex. The refusal of Philip II of Spain to countenance ancient Dutch freedoms and tolerate a diverse religious society led to an extended conflict referred to as both the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years' War. It overlapped with pre-modern Europe's most extensive and destructive war, the Thirty Years' War. Though sparked by a religious revolt by Bohemian Calvinists against Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, the dispute rapidly lost its religious basis as it expanded into a European-wide superpower conflict.

In a war full of horrors, the depredation of soldiers on both sides was notorious. "The cruelty of the souldier towards the inhabitants of those countries, is inexpressible," wrote Philip Vincent in his account, which included gruesome illustrations to help convince readers.

This case included

  • Philip Vincent. The lamentations of Germany. Wherein, as in a glasse, we may behold her miserable condition, and reade the woefull effects of sine. London: Printed by E. G[riffin] for Iohn Rothwell, 1638. STC 24761 Bd.w. STC 11791. LUNA Digital Image.
  • William I, Prince of Orange. A supplication to the Kinges Maiestie of Spayne, made by the Prince of Orange. London: Henry Middleton, 1573. STC 25710.
  • Nevves from Bohemia. An apologie made by the states of the Kingdome of Bohemia, shewing the reasons why those of the reformed religion were moued to take armes, for the defence of the King and themselues, especially against the dangerous sect of Jesuites. London : Printed by George Purslow, 1619. STC 3211 copy .

Ambivalence towards Islam

Europeans had a long history of interaction with Muslims going back to before the crusades of the Middle Ages. Considering themselves engaged in both religious and cultural conflict with Islam, early modern Europeans had a wide variety of bigoted stereotypical views of Muslims in general and of the two major societies of contact, the Ottoman Turks and the Moors of North Africa, in particular. In travel narratives, stories of pirates and religious and political texts, Christian writers portrayed a complex and contradictory Islamic world that was largely imaginary. Though demonizing stereotypes of racial difference, sexual promiscuity, and cruelty remained, increased contact and experience gained through travel, diplomacy, and trade modified some of these myths into a grudging admiration for the power and sophistication of Islamic society. In a small way, a deeper understanding of a religion and people believed to be inherently different was achieved.

An excerpt from a thirteenth-century work by Bar Hebraeus (also known as Abu 'l-Faraj) on the history of Islam serves as the backdrop for an extensive study by Edward Pococke of the religion, history, and literature of the Arab world that marks the beginning of modern Islamic studies in the West.

This case included

  • Bar Hebraeus. De origine & moribus Arabum. Specimen historiæ Arabum, sive Gregorii Abul Farajii Malatiensis, De origine & moribus Arabum succincta narratio, in linguam Latinam conversa, notisque è probatissimis apud ipsos authoribus, fusiùs illustrata. Operâ & studio Eduardi Pocockii linguarum Hebr. & Arab. in Academia Oxoniensi professoris. Oxford, 1650. 141- 964q.
  • LOAN from The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. Portrait of the Moorish Ambassador to the Court of Queen Elizabeth, 1600.
  • Willem Janszoon Blaeu. Appendix Theatri A. Ortelii et Atlantis G. Mercatoris. Amsterdam, 1631. G1015 .B5 1631 Cage. LUNA Digital Image.
  • The Alcoran of Mahomet [Koran]. London, 1649. K747.
  • Mohammedis imposturæ: that is, A discouery of the manifold forgeries, falshoods, and horrible impieties of the blasphemous seducer Mohammed. London: Printed by Richard Field, 1615. STC 17995 Copy 1.

Encountering Africans

Early modern Europeans had not yet developed hard and fast racial theories. While negative stereotypes of Africans abounded, there was intense curiosity about the continent and its people. The word "race" itself had a variety of different meanings and was most commonly used to refer to distinctions between Europeans based on their nationality, gender, or ethnic origin.

While the notion of Africa itself initially conjured up imaginary kingdoms and peoples, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century colonial expansion and increased trading and raiding brought Europeans greater knowledge of the continent and of African peoples. This evolving geographic and ethnographic knowledge, derived from experience, often challenged many of the myths inherited from the Ancients and the Bible. In the case of Africa and Africans, acquaintance did not lead to increased respect and the toleration of difference. Rather, the demands of empire and commerce culminated in the brutal persecution of Africans in the slave trade.

One of the most common representations of "blackness" derived from visual images of the expression "washing the Ethiop white." This expression came from Aesopian fable and was used primarily to refer to an impossible task, or laboring in vain.

This case included

  • Geffrey Whitney. A choice of emblemes, and other devises, for the moste parte gathered out of sundrie writers, Englished and moralized. Leyden: Francis Raphelengius, 1586. STC 25438 Copy 2. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Wenceslaus Hollar. Portrait of a young African woman. Etching, Antwerp, 1645. ART Vol. b35 no.46. LUNA Digital Image.
  • John Ogilby. Africa: being an accurate description of the regions of Ægypt, Barbary, Lybia, and Billedulgerid, the land of Negroes, Guinee, Æthiopia, and the Abyssines, with all the adjacent islands, either in the Mediterranean, Atlantick, Southern, or Oriental Sea, belonging thereunto. London: Printed by Tho. Johnson, [1670]. 141- 503f. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Thomas Duffett. The empress of Morocco. A farce. London, 1674. D2446.
  • Duarte Lopes. A report of the kingdome of Congo, a region of Africa. London: Printed by John Wolfe, 1597. STC 16805.
  • Royal African Company. The several declarations of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading into Africa. London, 1667. 154- 787q.

Catholics in England: The Experience of a Religious Minority

The experience of Catholics in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) provides an interesting example of the difficulties religious minorities faced in the period. Though Protestants were viciously persecuted by the Catholic Queen Mary, the beginning of Elizabeth's reign in 1558 ushered in a period of relative tranquility. The excommunication of Elizabeth in 1570 by Pope Pius V, internal Catholic plotting, and international tension with Catholic Spain, however, changed all of this. Seen as security threats and potential enemy agents, Catholics, and especially continental-educated priests, were increasingly persecuted by the authorities as traitors and enemies of the state.

The Jesuit and Catholic martyr Edmund Campion (1540-1581) was the best known of the victims of Elizabeth's persecution of Catholics. Returning to England from the Continent in 1580, Campion was eventually captured, tortured, and executed.

This contemporary manuscript is a copy of the interrogation on 22 June 1587 of the Jesuit and friend of Campion, William Weston. The gallows symbol indicated that he was scheduled for execution. Weston avoided this fate, dying in Spain in 1616.

This case included

  • The Examination of Jesuits and Seminary priests (the answers of ten priests to 18 interrogatories and 6 "printed articles"). Manuscript, 1587. K.b.1. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Anthony Munday, A discouerie of Edmund Campion, and his confederates, their most horrible and traiterous practises, against her Maiesties most royall person, and the realme. London: [John Charlewood] for Edwarde White, 1582. STC 18270.2 copy 1.
  • William Cecil Burghley. The execution of iustice in England for maintenaunce of publique and Christian peace, against certeine stirrers of sedition, and adherents to the traytors and enemies of the realme, without any persecution of them for questions of religion, as is falsely reported and published by the fautors and fosterers of their treasons. [London: Printed by Christopher Barker, 1583 [i.e. 1584]]. STC 4903 copy 1.
  • Robert Parsons. A brief discours contayning certayne reasons why Catholiques refuse to goe to church. Doway [East Ham]: John Lyon, 1580. STC 19394.

James I and Religious Toleration

The accession of James VI, king of Scotland, as James I, king of England, on Elizabeth's death encouraged both Catholics and Puritans to hope for increased religious freedom. Catholics especially hoped that the son of the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots, would bring toleration for the practice of their faith. Though James was suspicious of Puritans and, for a variety of political reasons, at times lenient towards Catholics, the attempt by a group of Catholic zealots to blow up Parliament, the Gunpowder Plot, ensured their continued status as a suspect minority.

This German engraving of the Gunpowder Plot depicts in intricate detail the plotters and their ultimate fates.

This case included

The Puritan Revolution

The most significant voices for liberty of conscience and freedom of religion in the period emerged in England during the Puritan Revolution (1640-1660). Though the three kingdoms of the British Isles—England, Scotland and Ireland—witnessed political and military conflict, a struggle that ensued from the collapse of the rule and religious policies of Charles I, one of the byproducts was a vigorous debate on the principle of toleration. The Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell attempted to bring about toleration for many persecuted Protestant sects. He also granted toleration and readmission of the Jews into England; they had been expelled by royal edict in 1290.

The emergence of democratic or "Leveller" ideas in the Puritan army in the mid- 1640s was accompanied by the clearest articulation of the argument for religious toleration and freedom of conscience. One of the most original of the Levellers was William Walwyn whose numerous works argued against a state church and advocated liberty of conscience for all religions.

Another Leveller leader was Richard Overton, who demanded religious liberty for all of England, including Catholics and Jews. Overton called for the release of the oft-imprisoned activist John Lilburne, who held that religious dissention was the work of the devil and the only path toward peace and harmony was through granting complete freedom of conscience.

This case included

  • William Walwyn. Tolleration Justified, and persecution condemn'd. London, 1646. 137- 749q.
  • Richard Overton. A remonstrance of many thousand citizens, and other free-born people of England, to their owne House of Commons. London, 1646. R993. LUNA Digital Image.
  • Oliver Cromwell. By His Highness: a proclamation prohibiting the disturbing of ministers and other Christians in their assemblies and meetings. London: Henry Hills and John Field, [1654, i.e. 1655]. 235582.
  • A remonstrance of grievances presented to his most excellent Majestie, in the behalfe of the Catholicks of Ireland. Waterford: Thomas Bourke, 1643. R989 Bd.w. STC 7434 Copy 2

Debating Toleration in the Restoration

The restoration of Charles II should have brought general religious toleration to England. This is what the king promised on the eve of his accession. Parliament and political necessity, however, forced him to accept the dominance of a rigid Anglican state church and, with the Clarendon Code and the Test Acts, a rigorous program of religious exclusion, discriminating against Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers. While many dissenting groups suffered, the Quakers endured the harshest persecution from the Anglican regime, whose members had suffered themselves under the Puritans. Experience of oppression, however, did not lead to empathy and the renunciation of intolerance. In fact, it seems to have reinforced the necessity of persecution.

Jeremy Taylor was a rare establishment advocate for freedom of conscience. Taylor's plea for toleration, even for Catholics, proved rather ineffective among former exiles of the established church.

This case included

  • Jeremy Taylor. Theologia eklektike. London, 1647. T400 Copy 2. LUNA Digital Image.
  • [William Penn]. The reasonableness of toleration, and the unreasonableness of penal laws and tests. London, 1687. P1352.
  • William Penn. Considerations moving to a toleration, and liberty of conscience London, 1685. P1269.
  • William Penn. The great case of liberty of conscience once more briefly debated & defended, by the authority of reason, Scripture, and antiquity. London. Printed [by Andrew Sowle], 1670. P1299 Bd.w. P1336 Copy 1.
  • George Fox. A general epistle to Friends, and all people, to read over and consider in the fear of God. London, 1667. F1826.
  • Charles II. By the King. A proclamation for the confinement of popish recusants within five miles of their respective dwellings. London: John Bill, Christopher Barker, Thomas Newcomb, and Henry Hills, 1678. 137- 143b.
  • The Catholick gamesters, or, A dubble match of bowling. Engraving, 1680. ART 249- 540 (size L).
  • The discovery of the Popish Plot, being the several examinations of Titus Oates D.D. before the high court of Parliament, the Lord Chief Justice, Sir Edmund-Bury Godfry, and several other of His Majesty’s justices of the peace. London, 1679. O34.
  • London’s flames: being an exact and impartial account of divers informations given in to the Committee of Parliament, by divers Members of Parliament, and many other persons of quality (whose names are inserted in this book) concerning the dreadful fire of London in the year 1666. London, 1679. L2927.

Richard Tuke. Memoires of the life and death of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey, late justice of the peace for Middlesex, who was barbarously murthered by the papists, upon the first discovery of the horrid plot. London, 1682. 146- 329q.

Voices for Toleration Amidst Acts of Hate

The granting of limited toleration for Protestants in England was preceded by one of the most infamous acts of intolerance of the age. Louis XIV had become increasingly discriminatory towards the Huguenots and in October 1685 took the step of revoking the Edict of Nantes by which Henry IV had guaranteed them limited toleration since 1598. The Revocation outlawed Protestant worship in France and resulted in horrible suffering for Huguenots. In response, nearly thousands emigrated to Britain, Switzerland, territories of the Holy Roman Empire, and the Americas.

Nonetheless, this act was contemporaneous with two of the greatest voices for tolerance, those of Benedict Spinoza and John Locke. While Spinoza's ideas on toleration were far more original, Locke's influence ensured a growing acceptance of the inappropriateness of religious persecution.

De Hooghe's polemical engraving portrays in grotesque detail the suffering of the Huguenot minority as a consequence of the intolerant policies of Louis XIV. These scenes of expulsion, torture, rape, and looting raise doubts about the triumph of reason at the end of the seventeenth century.

This case included

  • Romeyn de Hooghe. Tirrannien tegen de gereformeerden in Vrankyrk. Engraving, 1686. ART 233309.
  • Bartolomé de las Casas. Popery truly display’d in its bloody colours. London, 1689. C798
  • An edict of the French king, prohibiting all publick exercise of the pretended reformed religion in his kingdom. Wherein he recalls, and totally annuls the perpetual and irrevocable edict of King Henry the IV. his grandfather, given at Nantes; full of most gracious concessions to Protestants. [London]: Printed by G.M., 1686. 134- 030q.
  • James II. His Majesties gracious declaration to all his loving subjects for liberty of conscience. London: Printed by Charles Bill, Henry Hills, and Thomas Newcomb, 1687. J189.
  • John Locke. A letter concerning toleration: humbly submitted, &c. London, 1689. L2747.
  • Jonas Proast. The argument of the Letter concerning toleration, briefly consider’d and answer’s. Oxford, 1690. P3538.
  • John Locke. A third letter for toleration, to the author of The third letter concerning toleration. London, [1692]. 141- 334q.