I maintain that anyone who would burn me at the stake or even more perverse, drown me to prove I am not a witch, would qualify to me as nuts.  They may not have been diagnosed as such then by the mainstream, but that's probably just because people are usually ruled by fear, by fear of being persecuted for speaking the truth.

I do accept that those living 300 years ago most probably could not see the world through the eyes of those of us who have the experience of modernity (hell, there are people living today who don't even seem capable of it) but I also have a very strong suspicion that not everyone was an innocent sheep either.  Many people have a sense of right and wrong not entirely based on our social or religious upbringing.  While it was socially acceptable to do x,y and z, I think that it is unlikely no one had the good sense to question the legitimacy of those actions.  It's just that those who did were punished, intimidated into silence, or at the very least, were not writing official documents. :)

What I'm saying is that while people have only been trusted to think for themselves in recent times, they have had the capability of doing for a very long time.  And I am sure there were people who thought the Puritains were nuts.  For example, those who sent them here....


Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire