men be saved if all blindly resigned themselves to the will
of their rulers and accepted the religion of their country? For as the
princes of the world are divided in religion, one country alone would be
in the right, and all the rest of the world would have to follow their
princes to destruction; "and that which heightens the absurdity, and
very ill suits the notion of a deity, men would owe their eternal
happiness or their eternal misery to the places of their nativity." This
is a principle on which Locke repeatedly insists. If a State is
justified in imposing a creed, it follows that in all the lands, except
the one or few in which the true faith prevails, it is the duty of the
subjects to embrace a false religion. If Protestantism is promoted in
England, Popery by the same rule will be promoted in France. "What is
true and good in England will be true and good at Rome too, in China, or
Geneva." Toleration is the principle which gives to the true faith the
best chance of prevailing.

Locke would concede full liberty to idolaters, by whom he means the
Indians of North America, and he makes some scathing remarks on the
ecclesiastical zeal which forced these "innocent pagans" to forsake

[103] their ancient religion. But his toleration, though it extends
beyond the Christian pale, is not complete. He excepts in the first
place Roman Catholics, not on account of their theological dogmas but
because they "teach that faith is not to be kept with heretics," that
"kings excommunicated forfeit their crowns and kingdoms," and because
they deliver themselves up to the protection and service of a foreign
prince--the Pope. In other words, they are politically dangerous. His
other exception is atheists. "Those are not all to be tolerated who deny
the being of God. Promises, covenants and oaths, which are the bonds of
human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God,
though but even in thought, dissolves all. Besides also, those that by
their atheism undermine and destroy all religion, can have no pretence
of religion to challenge the privilege of a Toleration."

Thus Locke is not free from the prejudices of his time. These exceptions
contradict his own principle that "it is absurd that things should be
enjoined by laws which are not in men's power to perform. And to believe
this or that to be true does not depend upon our will." This applies to
Roman Catholics as to Protestants, to atheists as to deists. Lo