han in the previous three hundred.
Luther and his followers could not tolerate Calvinists any more than
they could {448} Catholics, and Calvinists, on the other hand, could
tolerate no other religious opinion.

The slow evolution of religious toleration in England is one of the
most remarkable things in history. Henry VIII, "Defender of the
Faith," was opposed to religious liberty. Queen Mary persecuted all
except Catholics. Elizabeth completed the establishment of the
Anglican Church, though, forced by political reasons, she gave more or
less toleration to all parties. But Cromwell advocated unrelenting
Puritanism by legislation and by the sword. James I, though a
Protestant wedded to imperialism in government, permitted oppression.
The Bill of Rights, which secured to the English people the privileges
of constitutional government, insisted that no person who should
profess the "popish" religion or marry a "papist" should be qualified
to wear the crown of England.

At the close of the sixteenth century it was a common principle of
belief that any person who adhered to heterodox opinions in religion
should be burned alive or otherwise put to death. Each church adhered
to this sentiment, though, it is true, many persons believed
differently, and at the close of the seventeenth century Bossuet, the
great French ecclesiastic, maintained with close argument that the
right of the civil magistrate to punish religious errors was a point on
which nearly all churches agreed, and asserted that only two bodies of
Christians, the Socinians and the Anabaptists, denied it.

In 1673 all persons holding office under the government of England were
compelled to take the oath of supremacy and of allegiance, to declare
against transubstantiation, and to take the sacrament according to the
ritual of the established church. In 1689 the Toleration Act was
passed, exempting dissenters from the Church of England from the
penalties of non-attendance on the service of the established church.
This was followed by a bill abolishing episcopacy in Scotland. In 1703
severe laws were passed in Ireland against those who professed the
Roman Catholic religion. The Test Act was not repealed until 1828,
when the oath was taken "on the true {449} faith of a Christian," which
was substituted for the sacrament test.

From this time on Protestant dissenters might hold office. In the year
following, the Catholic Relief Act extended toleration to th