Toleration - Reinhold Niebuhr

4th in a series of quotations:

In the religious conflicts of the Cromwellian period there were religious fanatics who were anxious to secure religious monopoly for their particular version of the Christian faith. There were also some secularists who hoped for toleration through the decay of religion. But the victor for toleration was really won by various groups of Christians ... and some individuals in other sectarian groups.

Their viewpoint was expressed in ... John Saltmarsh's Smoke in the Temple. The latter perfectly expresses the religious humility which must form the basis of religious democracy: "Let us," he declares, "not assume any power of infallibility toward each other ... for another's evidence is as dark to me as mine to him ... till the Lord enlighten us both for discerning alike."

(Where Niebuhr quotes Saltmarsh the elipses are his; elsewhere they are mine.)