John Locke, a peacemaker

John Locke strives to be a peacemaker. That is why he devoted his energy to teaching religious tolerance to his contemporaries and especially to future generations. He encouraged tolerance between parents, and between them and their offspring. In particular, he considered that employees, including slaves, had a natural right to freely and voluntarily choose their religions in the same way as their bosses or any other individual. Moreover, thanks to the separation of temporal and religious powers and the independence of one from the other, the conversion of souls is not a matter for the state. Nor is the violation of the property of the faithful within the competence of their religious leaders or any other of their co-religionists. Intolerance within religions is banned. Intolerance within religions is banned, as well as intolerance between religions and between members of religions. This makes international religious wars illegitimate. Locke is, however, intolerant of sects, including atheism and Roman Catholicism.