John Locke
...of war, taxes, religious intolerance, and political mischief. At the time there was a conflict between Crown and Parliament and the conflicts between Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics. With the defeat of Charles I in 1649 there began a great experiment in governmental institutions including the abolishment of the monarchy, the house of the Lords and ht Anglican Church, and the establishment of Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate in the 1650s. After these events England was declared a common wealth. Throughout the 17th century, many of the foremost religious writers had clung to the conviction that God had imprinted on the mind of man certain indelible truths, and that of these ideas the assurance of God's own existence was at once the clearest and the most important. (G.R. Cragg, p.115)
John Locke was born August 29, 1632 into Protestant parents. Locke's father was a lawyer who served in Cavalry Company on the Puritan side in the early stages of the English civil war (http://www.panix.com). Locke was a boy when the civil war broke out (1640s). Locke was a king scholar which were a group of boys who had the privilege of living in the school and who received a stipend for two or three years before standing to election for either Christ church, Oxford or Trinity College Cambridge. Locke was sixteen years old and was attending Westminster when Charles I was executed. From Westminster Locke attended Oxford at the age of twenty (http://panix.com). The importance of some thinkers is even greater than the intrinsic value of what they have to say. (G. R. Cragg, p.114). Locke characterized the view of his own age and predicted the thought of the succeeding period. The choice of Locke's influence was much wider than the circle usually affected by the writings of philosophers. He created a new mentality among intelligent people. He offered, a satisfying interpretation of the...
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