Colonial America was hardly the first to discover the merits of liberalism in the presence of religious diversity. A related dynamic took place during the Thirty Years’ War, when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II attempted to impose Catholicism uniformly across Europe and kicked off a bloody war against Protestant nations. Eight million lives later, it ended in a stalemate. Each kingdom agreed to stop interceding in the affairs of the other, and passed acts that gave recognition to minority faiths. It was only by observing this remarkable normative convergence that Hugo Grotius, the prodigious 17th century diplomat, was inspired to become “the father of natural law.” His writings were a precursor to more fully realized Enlightenment theories of liberalism, but were unique for blurring the line between prescription and description by extrapolating the norms “discovered” in the give and take of social cooperation. - https://niskanencenter.org/blog/future-liberalism-politicization-everything/