His Region, His Religion: Hobbes and the Politics of Sectarianism

Abstract

The paper examines the role of doctrine of cuius regio eius religio (‘whose region, his religion’) as used by Hobbes, understood in the broad context of sectarian violence and the de-sacralisation of confessional states in the early modern period. A non-liberal account of toleration is developed and compared to Rawls’ liberal version of toleration.