The readmission of the Jews and the power of the civil magistrate: Thomas Barlow on the Jews and natural law, 1655-1656

This article sheds light upon an important but neglected context in which Thomas Barlow (1608/9–1691) and his contemporaries discussed the readmission of Jews 1655–56. Previous studies have shown how English perception evolved, few noticed that saw controversy as part a larger debate on limit civil magistrate’s power religious toleration. By recovering specific political 1655–56, idea natural law played key role, this highlights legal constitutional problems admitting Barlow’s distinctive intellectual solution to them. Adopting Hugo Grotius’ Catholic jurists’ method, redefined Jews’ obligation under suggested magistrate could formally admit Jews.