John Locke: Second Treatise on Civil Government (1690)
Context
The context of the Second Treatise on Civil Government was the Glorious Revolution of 1688, an event whose roots stretched back at least to the reign of King Henry VIII in the early sixteenth century. Henry's rejection of Roman Catholicism and his reformation of the church in England coincided with the greater Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in Germany in 1517 with the publication of his Ninety-five Theses. Henry's reforms, however, did not go far enough for those who wanted to see the church fully purified. Out of this discontent rose the Puritans, who became the party of radical reform. Pitted against them was the Church of England (Anglican) establishment, which sought to impose national unity of religion in England. The ensuing struggle reached a climax of armed conflict in the mid-seventeenth century under King Charles I: the three-stage English Civil War took place through the 1640s between the Royalists (supporters of the king) and a...
