Oliver Cromwell's Religious Toleration

Cromwell’s religious toleration could be described as limited as his religious toleration only concerned Protestants, as it excluded Catholicism and even excluded some Protestant groups. This could be perceived to have elements of a military dictatorship as this is discrimination against minority religious groups. His treatment of these groups was typically dictatorial as the representative of the Socinian’s (who were excluded from religious toleration) John Biddle’s anti-trinitarian book His Twelve Arguments Refuting the Common Opinion of the Deity of the Holy Ghost was burned. In addition to this, on the 13th December Biddle was voted to be imprisoned. This shows that Cromwell did not always back religious toleration and only backed ideas he believed in. This lack of toleration

However, Cromwell can be alternatively viewed as lenient towards John Biddle and other radical religious figures, and therefore shows Oliver Cromwell was religiously supporting the view that he was not a military dictator. This is because Cromwell’s’ intervention meant John Biddle was exiled to the Sicily Islands instead of being burned and he was also later released in 1658. Another example of this is when the Quaker, James Naylor in October 1656 re-enacted the entrance of Christ to Jerusalem, parliament debated the case from 5th to 17th of December 1656 and convicted him of ‘horrid blasphemy’ as well as imprisoning him and branded and bored through his tongue. Whereas Cromwell defended Naylor by appealing to parliament ‘What if the case of James Naylor…happen to be your own case?’. This source is from December 1656 therefore shows Cromwell is troubled by the Second Protectorate Parliament’s intolerance at the time of the case. Cromwell’s toleration makes him not a military dictator as it shows he does not supress beliefs he