The Biological Value of Religion

[Michael]

Diablo. On equality before the law, this was certainly a hallmark of the Puritan revolt of the 17th century. It was most strikingly shown by their willingness to imprison, try, and behead the king, Charles I. Central to their view was that no one had privilege before the law, not even a king. Of course power corrupts and Cromwell himself slowly established his own privileged position, but the willingness to execute a king after trial underlined their view that everyone was equal before the law, and nobility were not above the law. Alongside this we had redistribution of land, and the start of what we call 'common land' that thankfully still persists in England. It is hard to understate how much the old feudal 'noblesse oblige' system was completely overturned by Cromwell and the parliamentarians, though it would later take Mary Wollstonecraft to challenge men to include women in that basic order of equality of all before God (answering Paine's egalitarian 'Rights of man' with 'A vindication of the rights of women').