AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

Note: Missing Page 155. Libertines of the seventeenth century vigorously disputed the conventional beliefs and systems of knowledge generally accepted in their time. Offspring of a time of transition in politics, religion and scientific knowledge, their individualism was formed and influenced by many factors in this age of shifting values. They were affected by the decline of Papal authority and the growth of national self consciousness; by Protestant interpretations of the Scriptures, and the increasing complexity and disparateness of religious dogma.