[As Sa'iqa]

RationalWiki (nie związane z polskim portalem "racjonalista") ma na ten temat dość przystępny artykuł:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Protestant_Reformation
W szczególności ten fragment:

A common misconception is that the Reformation ushered in an era of free inquiry. It is true that Martin Luther was a strong supporter of freedom of conscience (as expressed especially in his book On Secular Authority), and that Protestants in England were far more tolerant of dissenters than their Catholic predecessors had been, as shown for example when Oliver Cromwell rescinded that country's long-time ban on Jews. However, the Reformation also led to a reduction of intellectual freedom in many places; for example, the puritanical regime of Calvin in Geneva greatly limited intellectual expression in that city, which hitherto had been a hotbed of libertinism and decadence. The humanist movement, long ascendant in Renaissance Europe and subsequently squashed by the Reformation, was typified by Erasmus, an occasionally insightful but frequently dreadful philosopher. Often the new Protestant sects that sprang up, such as the radical Anabaptist movements, were far more intellectually stultifying than the corrupt and inept Catholic Church of the day could ever manage to be. (For proof of this, compare the present-day Amish with the society surrounding them.)