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Why did Voltaire admire English religious tolerance and political institutions?
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Voltaire
Voltaire, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.
Voltaireās admiration for English religious tolerance and political institutions was primarily shaped by the stark contrast he perceived between the freedom he experienced in England and the arbitrary injustice he faced in France.1
Following his imprisonment in the Bastille without trial for insulting a nobleman, Voltaireās exile to England in 1726 provided him with a model of a society that protected individual liberty and fostered intellectual progress. His experiences there led him to champion the following:21
- Religious Toleration: Voltaire viewed England as a country that embraced freedom of thought, contrasting this with the religious persecution and intolerance he witnessed in France. He famously advocated for the necessity of tolerance, viewing the church's intolerance as a form of "infamy" that needed to be challenged.231
- Political and Intellectual Freedom: He admired the English system for its stability and its support for the sciences and arts, which he believed were essential for human happiness. Unlike the arbitrary, centralist French government that denied political opportunity, England offered a framework where reason could flourish.31
These observations were central to his Lettres philosophiques, which presented England as a model for his compatriots to emulate in the pursuit of justice and progress.3