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Title: A History of Freedom of Thought

Author: John Bagnell Bury

Release Date: January 11, 2004 [EBook #10684]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE

No. 69

Editors:

HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A.
Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, Litt.D., LL.D., F.B.A.
Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A.
Prof. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A.

A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

BY

J. B. BURY, M.A., F.B.A

HON. D.LITT. OF OXFORD, DURHAM, AND DUBLIN, AND HON. LL.D. OF EDINBURGH,
GLASGOW, AND ABERDEEN UNIVERSITIES; REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY,
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

AUTHOR OF "HISTORY OF THE LATTER ROMAN EMPIRE," "HISTORY OF GREECE,"
"HISTORY OF THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE," ETC.

[IV]

1913,

[V]
CONTENTS

CHAP.

I Introductory
II Reason Free (Greece And Rome)
III Reason in Prison (The Middle Ages)
IV Prospect of Deliverance (The Renaissance and the Reformation)
V Religious Toleration
VI The Growth of Rationalism (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries)
VII The Progress of Rationalism (Nineteenth Century)
VIII The Justification of Liberty of Thought
Bibliography
Index

[7] A HISTORY OF FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

CHAPTER I

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND THE FORCES AGAINST IT

(INTRODUCTORY)

IT is a common saying that thought is free. A man can never be hindered
from thinking whatever he chooses so long as he conceals what he thinks.
The working of his mind is limited only by the bounds of his experience
and the power of his imagination. But this natural liberty of private
thinking is of little value. It is unsatisfactory and even painful to
the thinker himself, if he is not permitted to communicate his thoughts
to others, and it is obviously of no value to his neighbours. Moreover
it is extremely difficult to hide thoughts that have any power over the
mind. If a man's thinking leads him to call in question ideas and
customs whic