'Private is in secret free': Hobbes and Locke on the limits of toleration, atheism and heterodoxy

Abstract

Both Hobbes and Locke were strongly motivated by anticlericalism. Hobbes saw public religion as a function of the state, but was willing to countenance any private belief as long as it did not show itself in public dissent. Locke regarded free enquiry as an ultimate good, and would not tolerate either priestcraft or entrenched positions such as atheism to interfere with it.