Abstract

In the wake of the Protestant Reformation and the division of Western Christianity into rival religious camps, France descended into religious civil war in the years 1562-1598. The question then was how to respond to it. Writing after Spinoza’s championing of freedom of religious thought but before Hobbes’ advocacy of a strong sovereign who would dictate the prayers and forms of religious worship for the nation as a method of avoiding religious conflict, Bodin argued for religious toleration, indeed for a degree of religious toleration that was radical in its day.