Tolerant revolution

SIR – Anthony Pick (Letters, May 12) rightly highlights the significance for constitutional monarchy of the 1688-9 “Glorious Revolution”. Of equal importance is its role in the constitutional development of freedom of religion, here and across the world.

In England, the 1689 Toleration Act permitted worship outside the established Church for the first time. Prior to this, thousands of dissenters such as John Bunyan faced imprisonment or even execution for expressing beliefs that did not conform to the politically dominant system.

In Scotland, the accession of William and Mary drew a final line under the Stuart kings’ attempts to impose their own beliefs on the Scottish Church, which had led to the bloodiest period of religious persecution in British history, still known in Scotland as “the killing times”. These are lessons politicians today need to remember. Dr Martin Parsons

West Mersea, Essex