Jul 3, 2013
Lord Acton on Liberty
“Civil and religious liberty are so commonly associated in people’s
mouths, and are so rare in fact, that their definition is evidently as
little understood as the principle of their connection. The point at
which they unite, the common root from which they derive their
sustenance, is the right of self-government. The modern theory, which
has swept away every authority except that of the State, and has made
the sovereign power irresistible by multiplying those who share it, is
the enemy of that common freedom in which religious freedom is included.
It condemns, as a State within the State, every inner group and
community, class or corporation, administering its own affairs; and, by
proclaiming the abolition of privileges, it emancipates the subjects of
every such authority in order to transfer them exclusively to its own.
It recognises liberty only in the individual, because it is only in the
individual that liberty can be separated from authority, and the right
of conditional obedience deprived of the security of a limited command.
Under its sway, therefore, every man may profess his own religion more
or less freely; but his religion is not free to administer its own laws.
In other words, religious profession is free, but Church government is
controlled. And where ecclesiastical authority is restricted,
religious liberty is virtually denied.”
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