tice of their own duties, the
enjoyment of their own constitution, and the protection of the law,
which equally secures to all the possession of their own independence.
Far from implying a general toleration, it is best secured by a limited
one. In an indifferent State, that is, in a State without any definite
religious character (if such a thing is conceivable), no ecclesiastical
authority could exist. A hierarchical organisation would not be
tolerated by the sects that have none, or by the enemies of all definite
religion; for it would be in contradiction to the prevailing theory of
atomic freedom. Nor can a religion be free when it is alone, unless it
makes the State subject to it. For governments restrict the liberty of
the favoured Church, by way of remunerating themselves for their service
in preserving her unity. The most violent and prolonged conflicts for
religious freedom occurred in the Middle Ages between a Church which was
not threatened by rivals and States which were most attentive to
preserve her exclusive predominance. Frederic II., the most tyrannical
oppressor of the Church among the German emperors, was the author of
those sanguinary laws against heresy which prevailed so long in many
parts of Europe. The Inquisition, which upheld the religious unity of
the Spanish nation, imposed the severest restrictions on the Spanish
Church; and in England conformity has been most rigorously exacted by
those sovereigns who have most completely tyrannised over the
Established Church. Religious liberty, therefore, is possible only where
the co-existence of different religions is admitted, with an equal right
to govern themselves according to their own several principles.
Tolerance of error is requisite for freedom; but freedom will be most
complete where there is no actual diversity to be resisted, and no
theoretical unity to be maintained, but where unity exists as the
triumph of truth, not of force, through the victory of the Church, not
through the enactment of the State.

This freedom is attainable only in communities where rights are sacred,
and where law is supreme. If the first duty is held to be obedience to
authority and the preservation of order, as in the case of aristocracies
and monarchies of the patriarchal type, there is no safety for the
liberties either of individuals or of religion. Where the highest
consideration is the public good and the popular will, as in
democracies, and in constitutional mo