It did not demand uniformity of religious belief under the
direction of a visible Church claiming to be the exclusive channel
of salvation, nor conformity to the discipline of a Church claim-
ing to be the guardian of morals on behalf of the honour of God.
Either a Roman Catholic or a Presbyterian supremacy would
have imposed a narrower and harsher interpretation of religious
obedience. At the same time, a liberal measure of religious
toleration was impossible. Toleration means the recognition
of diversity, both in opinion and in opinion's outcome, organiza-
tion. Neither the members of the National Church nor their main
enemies thought it either right or necessary to tolerate serious
differences of religious faith or organization. They struggled
not for liberty but for domination, for control of the National
Church. This was true of the Jesuits and seminary priests who
sought at the risk of martyrdom to keep the old religion alive in
England, but could not steer clear of plots against the sovereign
and alliances with her continental enemies. It was equally true of
the Puritans who, professing fanatical loyalty to the throne, tried
to alter the Church in accordance with the customs of Geneva.

Religious toleration in England was probably impossible
until events had proved that religious uniformity was impossible.
This does not mean that religious toleration was unheard of.
Professor W. K. Jordan has shown in his great work on the
development of religious toleration in the first half of the
seventeenth century, ¹ that powerful and comprehensive argu-
ments for toleration were raised early in the reign of James I by
Baptist writers, while inside the Church itself Socinian and
Arminian influence encouraged a current of thought in favour of
the widest possible comprehension. But the Baptists were a
small and unpopular separatist sect, and the Latitudinarian
churchmen were suspected of dangerous Socinian (Unitarian)
heresies about the doctrine of the Trinity. Theoretical argu-
ments for toleration came from unpopular minorities, and were
in advance of the practical possibilities of the age.

The climax of this first phase came in the civil wars of 1642-
1648. It can even be placed in the year 1644, when the attempt
of the victorious Presbyterians to impose upon the nation, under

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