ABSTRACT
John Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration is one of the foundational documents of the liberal tradition. It was published anonymously, in Latin, in 1689 and translated into English the same year by Locke's friend, William Popple. The Letter, when it appeared, aroused admiration among those circles in Holland committed to toleration and religious dissent. Speculation arose immediately as to the identity of its author. The Letter, after all, advocated a separation of church and state, which, in political terms, meant the disestablishment of the Church of England as the official state church. As Raymond Klibansky tells us, van Limborch was the only person at the time to know the author's identity, and he wrote to Locke informing him of the inquiries to which the publication of the Letter had given rise, maintaining the fiction, within his note, that neither of them knew who the author was. However, he hides himself and nobody is able to detect him.
