The demand for freedom of conscience and for the release of the intellect and reason from the domination of bigotry and superstition constituted one of the first steps toward reform. Galileo, Bruno, Copernicus, and Harvey are notable examples of the revolt against the intellectual tyranny which prevailed. It is not a little singular that at this time the throne of England was occupied by a woman and that her reign should have been the most brilliant that that country has ever enjoyed. It has frequently been said that the success of Elizabeth’s reign was due not to her greatness but to that of the statesmen whom she called about her. But even were this true, which it is not, it would not detract from her greatness. The innate qualities developed within Queen Elizabeth, namely genius and intuition, can alone explain the brilliancy of her reign. It is to be doubted if the progressive principle has ever been wholly dead. That even during the darkest period of the Middle Ages the constructive element was still alive in Europe is shown in the fact that as early as the year 1215 the idea of individual human liberty had already been formulated. In the Magna Charta wrested from King John at Runnymede appears the following: No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or banished, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him or upon him send except by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell; to no one will we deny or delay right or justice. Although a few attempts were made during the sixteenth century to better the conditions of the masses of the people, as all the institutions for the perpetuation of the slavery of the masses were firmly established, little was accomplished in this direction. That reforms move slowly is shown in the fact that as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century of the Christian era, the greater portion of the human race was in a state of bondage. Slavery existed in every quarter of the globe. In Russia, in 1855, there were forty-eight millions of serfs, and in Austria and Prussia the peasantry were nearly all slaves. In Hungary nine millions of human beings belonged to a subject class. Although no slaves were owned in England, slavery still existed in her colonies. In the West Indies the whip was freely used, and prior to the year 1820 no voice had been raised against the flogging of women on the plantations. In Scotland, down to the last year of the eighteenth century, colliers and salters were slaves and bound to their service for life, being bought and sold with the works at which they laboured. Although America had put down the slave-trade, she still owned slaves, and continued to traffic in them until the year 1863.