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Review Article
MM has been used for the Latin text, which KG follows; MM reproduces Popple's translation, KG a corrected version of Popple.
KG
Epistola de tolerantia; A letter on toleration, ed. Raymond Klibansky, trans. J. G. Gough, Oxford 1968
MG
John Locke, A letter concerning toleration and other writings, ed. Mark Goldie, Indianapolis 2010
MM
John Locke, A letter concerning toleration, ed. Mario Montuori, The Hague 1963
RVMS
Locke on toleration, ed. Richard Vernon, trans. Michael Silverthorne, Cambridge 2010.
Over the past three centuries Locke's Epistola de tolerantia (written in 1685, published in English and Latin in 1689) has worn well. Its plea for the rational necessity of coexistence rather than authoritarianism as a solution to religious conflict, the effective rhetoric of the English translation, and - in all likelihood - its brevity make it one of the most accessible texts of the canon. Despite the plethora of editions already available there is, it seems, still a market for two new ones, each of which approaches the Letter from a different, and revealing, stance.
Currently, the most widely used edition is probably James Tully's of 1983.1Mark Goldie's new edition follows the Tully tradition in reproducing William Popple's translation of 1689. It is published in the Liberty Fund's Thomas Hollis Library series, intended to present texts of 'intellectual power', contemporary impact, or with a distinct approach to liberty, which may be 'salutary and influential today' (pp. vii-viii). Goldie's introduction opens with a concise encapsulation of late seventeenth-century European intolerance, briefly notes the circumstances of publication, and then surveys Locke's main arguments and changing views over time. He ends by cautiously suggesting the Letter to be a contribution to Enlightenment anti-religious writing. Richard Vernon's edition, which offers a new translation by Michael Silverthorne, forms part of Cambridge University Press's Texts in the History of Philosophy. Vernon's introduction has an effective summary of the toleration question under Charles ii and notes the European dimensions of the Letter before analysing Locke's argument, particularly in response to Jonas Proast. Proast, a High Church Oxford don who defended uniformity on Augustinian principles, was rare in provoking Locke to defend his ideas - a debate which rumbled...