Left-wing activists are using old tactics in a new assault on liberalism
It is possible to detect eerie echoes of the confessional state of yore
LIBERALISM WAS forged in the revolt against the confessional state that had ruled Europe for more than a millennium. In medieval Europe the Roman Catholic church employed a transnational army of black-coated clerics who demanded obedience on all matters spiritual and moral, and had a monopoly in education. The Reformation introduced religious competition, strengthening the confessional state. John Calvin crushed dissent in Geneva with imprisonment, exile and execution. Henry VIII took to boiling dissenters alive. The Roman church invented the Inquisition and the Index of Forbidden Books.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “Echoes of the confessional state”
From the September 4th 2021 edition
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